


TAZ: Bonds

by Friendly_Local_Neighborhood_DM (Fyredrake20)



Category: TAZ - Fandom, the adventure zone
Genre: F/M, Fuck You The Starblaster Is Alive, I promise, Leave some in comments, Some headcannons have been accepted, Stolen Century, TAZ: Balance, cannon trans character, fanfic100, mcelboys, the adventure zone - Freeform, the writing gets better as it goes on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:41:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26449462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fyredrake20/pseuds/Friendly_Local_Neighborhood_DM
Summary: A version of the stolen century, where each year focuses on one of the birds. It cycles through, starting with Davenport, working through to Taako, with a little bit of John thrown in every now and then. I hope to get through all 100. The plan is to update every Wednesday, but that isn't set in stone. Maybe more than once a week, maybe I'll miss one. But that's the plan!
Relationships: blupjeans - Relationship
Comments: 12
Kudos: 5





	1. Davenport - Year One - Animal Planet

As soon as they brought the Starblaster back into the Prime Material Plane, they knew something was up. After space got all jiggly, they returned to the planar system to find that the darkness that had been invading was gone. So many feelings were abounding, but Davenport knew he couldn’t afford to be caught up in the strangeness of all of that. He had a job to do. 

Barry was the first one to approach him. It had been hours since the bond engine had kicked back on and they had re-entered the Material Plane, but still, Davenport had not left the cockpit. He felt frozen in place. His eyes were bloodshot from staring out over the world below, still not fully understanding. It shouldn’t be, couldn’t be possible. The continents themselves were wrong. Nothing was familiar. The IPRE ground base wasn’t responding. There was so much that went wrong on their first mission, and he couldn’t help but blame himself. There had to have been something he could have done… something… 

“Captain. We’re having a briefing in the dining room. Taako cooked something up to help everyone calm down.” Barry closed the door quietly and walked out. Davenport sighed and relaxed his grip on the wheel. He couldn’t do any good for the crew if he was trapped at the wheel. He set the ship to hover, and started making his way to the dining hall.

“So what the fuck was up with all the copies of us?”

“Yeah? And what was that shadow thing?” 

The storm of questions being launched around the table was almost enough to match the storm howling inside his mind. It calmed though, as he entered and took his customary seat at the head of the table. Soon after he was settled, there was silence. He took a deep breath, and then Davenport spoke. 

“Alright. First order of business I guess. Barry, as our resident science officer, do you have any idea what is going on at all?”

Barry shifted nervously in his seat. He pushed his glasses up his face before answering in a quiet voice. “Honestly Captain, not really. From what I can tell, we must have somehow left our Planar System entirely, and entered a new one? But everything we know about arcane interaction and planar theory says that should be totally impossible.”

“Well impossible or not, we’re here now. So what the fuuuck are we gonna do about it?” 

It was Lup who finally said what everyone was thinking. Regardless of how, they were in an entirely new reality, and they knew nothing about it. 

“We’re gonna explore it right? I mean, that’s what we do. We’re researchers. We’re literally the IPRE, the Institute of Planar Research and Exploration. Exploring and researching other planes is kind of our whole deal. What better chance are we going to have to do that than being dropped directly onto one?” 

This time it was Magnus who spoke up. It was easy to forget that he also passed his exams and was just as intelligent as the rest of them in his own way, despite his rock ‘em sock ‘em outlook on life. And he made a fair point. They had left on their mission earlier that day to explore other planes, and right now they were hovering over the surface of another plane. What else could they do but explore it? 

“Magnus, that’s a good point. So, the standard protocol I guess, but starting tomorrow. I think we all deserve a day’s rest. Barry, I need your help finding a good place to land.”

And with that, the meeting ended. Davenport and Barry went to the cockpit to try and find a good place to set down for the night, Lup, Taako, and Lucrecia all went to their respective rooms, while Merle and Magnus decided to stay on deck and watch the new planet pass by underneath them. That’s why it was they who saw the light fall. 

At first, they thought it was a shooting star. A streak of light blinking into existance out of the black night sky. Merle saw it first, elbowing Magnus and telling him to make a wish. They sat and watched it in silence until they realized something strange about this particular star. For whatever reason, this one just kept going. They continued to watch it streak across the sky until they were both startled by a soft voice from behind them. 

“Well, that’s strange. That’s the Light Of Creation. It’s what we used to make the ship back at home. It doesn’t make sense for it to be here, but then again, it doesn’t make sense for us to be here either. Just another weird thing I guess” 

All of this was accompanied by the scratch of a pen on paper. Lucrecia had a way of moving that somehow made no sound at all. When they had first met her, it had been creepy for a while, but after working together for a while, it wasn’t hard to get accommodated. What was hard getting used to was the way she was content to sit on the sidelines. Nither Merle or Magnus could stand just watching the world go on around them, but Lucrecia lived her whole life like that. It never caused any issues, but it was still strange. 

The next day they found a place to land and found a very strange place. The entire planet was inhabited by animals, and not a single one was even remotely carnivorous. They all spoke the same language, and immediately Taako and Lup wanted to figure it out. They advocated for their part to learn the language under the pretenses that it would help the others understand the world more. 

Davenport was not happy just leaving anyone on their own, so he defaulted to protocol. Protocol said that when exploring a new plane if anyone was to stay in one place while the rest of the crew continued on, at least three had to stay. And so it was decided. Lup, Barry, and Taako would stay near the landing site and try and learn the language. Pretty soon after they left, Merle approached him, full of grand ideas for a Quest For The Light. 

“C’mon Capn’port! Just you and me! Trucking across the uncivilized lands, on a great hunt for the light of creation! With the power of Pan and your navigational skills, nothing will be able to slow us down! That light is as good as ours.” 

“I don’t know Merle. Protocol says three people on an expedition, and Magnus is already dead set on meeting the Royal Beasts. We won’t have enough people to…” 

“Captain. We’re in an entirely new reality. The planet we’re on has no people, and as far as we know, nothing is as it seems. Protocol be dammed! C’mon, let’s have us a quest, just you and me!” 

Eventually, Merle wore him down. About a month in, they packed up their gear and started off in the general direction they had seen the light fall. The two of them had never been close, but then again, Davenport had never really been that close to anyone he worked with. But over the months they spend camping together, he learned that Merle was just so full of love. Love for everything around him, for the people, the world, the plants. Especially the plants. That part was a little weird, but everything about Merle was a little weird. Over the time they spent together on that planet, Davenport grew to appreciate Merle’s weirdness. 

They didn’t find the light. But they did find out where it was. Once they got back to the ship and told the rest of the crew that the Royal Beasts had it, Magnus looked like he was ready to run across the planet to fight the power bear. 

“Oh hell yeah! I’ll challenge the bear for the light! Then once we have it…”

He faded out. As he did, a realization dawned over the crew of the Starblaster. Once they had it, if they had it, then what? They knew next to nothing about it. Sure it powered their ship, but what were they gonna do, make a second Starblaster? What would be the point in that? Almost as one, what was left of the IPRE sighed. Then all of a sudden, Lup jumped up out of her chair. 

“Who gives a shit? Once we get the light, we can figure it out from there!” She spun over behind Magnus’ chair, and teasingly began rocking it back and forth, taunting him in a singsong voice.

“Unless little Maggie is too afraid of the big ol’ bear to try and get the light from it…”

That did the trick. The sour mood that had fallen over the room was immediately lifted. Magnus jumped up out of his chair, indignant about having his bravery challenged, and started chasing Lup around the table. Taako conjured a small illusory bear on the table and started telling Magnus to be careful about the big scary bear. There was a familial feeling in the dining room that night. Everyone felt it. Everyone was laughing. Everyone, except for Davenport…

The flight to the Royal Court only took a few days. They landed and were immediately struck by the level of advancement in this area of the world. Everything was built up more. The animals were using rudimentary tools. Immediately, Barry had an idea as to what was going on. 

“It’s probably the light. It fuels creativity, and if these animals have had it for almost eleven months, then its influences would likely give them the capabilities to create…” 

He was cut off by Taako’s shout of “NERD!” and his sister’s laughter. But he did have a point. And if the light in its raw form had that kind of power, getting their hands on it could really be an asset in figuring out what the hell was going on. 

They were immediately lead to the center of the makeshift city. They stood before a platform on which the Royal Beasts sat. Magnus addressed the Power Bear directly, and Barry translated. It was a sight to behold. Davenport stayed near the back. He was proud of how much his crew had grown in not even a year. Eleven months ago they were on the deck of a ship, flying through space with nothing in their hearts but fear and nothing in their minds but questions. And now, they stood, in front of the Royalty of another plane. The seven of them in their crimson uniforms. It was a sight to behold. And Davenport was so proud that he was able to see it. 

Magnus didn’t succeed in fighting the Power Bear for the light. He did, however, get the opportunity to train with him. That was just as good, as far as Magnus was concerned. Davenport had other ideas. They needed that light, to figure out what was going on, and maybe get back home. Magnus ensured him that once his training was complete, they would have the light, and their research could begin in earnest. But Davenport felt uneasy. They had been here for almost a year, and he felt like the other shoe was about to drop. 

Almost twelve months to the day after their initial arrival, it did. Magnus had just left for his training with the Power Bear, and Davenport was taking his morning coffee on the deck of the Starblaster, which was parked on a platform built in the top of a tall tree. There was a sudden boom, loud enough to shake his mug out of his hands. Startled, he looked up to see the sky grow black. He heard footsteps and saw the rest of the crew run onto the deck. As one, they looked at each other. Lucrecia was the one who said it. 

“It’s here. Whatever it is, it’s here now.” 

And so he made the call. Everyone took flight positions, and he took to the helm. He flew up and away from the Prime Material Plane, and looking down, saw a sight that he had hoped to only see again in his nightmares. He saw a darkness the size of a plane, pulling the Prime Material Plane up into itself. He thought that nothing could make him feel worse until his stone of farspeach chimed on. It was Merle.

“Davenport. I just did a crew sweep. Magnus isn’t on board. We left him down there.”


	2. Magnus - Year 2 - A Baller Moonrise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus - Year 2

Dying wasn’t all that unfamiliar to Magnus. Sure, it had never happened before, but he had had his fair share of stabs and cuts and wounds. Being killed by the shadow beings was just like that, but worse. He was content as he lay dying because he knew that is what was happening. Magnus Burnsides was dying. He had done what he could to save these kind creatures, and now he would die. The last thing he did before life left his body was smile. Because he was happy with what his life had become and how it ended. 

What was unexpected was waking up. One second, he had a sword the size of a ship’s oar going in one side of him and out the other, and the next he was standing on the Starblaster, surrounded by his friends. Merle was crying. The others just seemed confused. 

“Oookay. So this is weird.” 

Again it was Lup. She and Taako were standing next to each other near the railing, looking out over the planar system. She turned around and gasped. 

“Magnus!” 

Her outcry was echoed first by Merle, then Barry, and finally Lucrecia. Within seconds, he was swarmed by his friends. There were shouts of joy, tears, and laughter. And questions. A thousand questions, and not a single answer. As a group, they bustled down into the dining room where Taako immediately started preparing a celebratory meal. They all sat down in their respective seats, and soon they settled into a calmer sort of celebration. But even that died down as they realized that someone else was missing. The head chair at the table sat empty. Davenport was still at the helm. 

“Oh my god. The cockpit is soundproof. He doesn’t know Magnus came back. He’s probably beating himself up in there…” 

Before Barry could even finish the sentence, Magnus had exploded out of his chair. He was sprinting up out on the deck and barreled into the cockpit. He had planned to sweep Capn’Port up in a bear hug and tell him everything was going to be okay, that he was alive again, that they were together. But an entirely different sight met him as he threw open the door. 

Instead of their stalwart captain standing at the wheel, what greeted him was the sound of crying. Davenport was hunched over the helm, almost completely limp. His tiny body was shaking with his tears. Magnus froze. He felt like he was intruding on something intensely private. But he knew that he was the only one who could fix it. 

“Captain. Hey.” 

Immediately, Davenport recomposed himself. Within a second, there was no sign that anything had ever been wrong. He stood straight as a board at the wheel, but he still didn’t turn around. 

“Hello. Are we having another briefing? I’ll be there in a minute. Clearly, there’s some sort of cycle happening. I’ll just bring us…” 

“Captain. It’s me. Magnus. I’m back.” 

Finally, Davenport turned around. For just a moment, his eyes widened. Then, just as quickly, he flicked a switch on the dashboard. He walked briskly over to Magnus then and shook his hand. 

“Magnus. It’s good to have you back. I’m not sure how, but I am deeply glad that you are still with us. Now, I believe we have a meeting to attend to?” 

And with that, the captain of the Starblaster walked out of the cockpit and below deck, into the dining hall, leaving Magnus to be confused in the doorway. 

***

“Yeah, I think Capn’Port is right. We seem to be in some sort of cycle. Darkness comes, we leave, rinse, and repeat. But that’s all we have. Also, we can’t die apparently? Magnus, would you mind coming into the Lab for a bit after this meeting? I have some ideas for tests about this whole regeneration thing.” 

“Yeah, totally.”

Like the captain, Barry had defaulted to protocol. Strange things happened? Run tests, figure it out. And this was easily the strangest thing any of them had ever experienced.

“I’ll bring us down into the Prime Material Plane again. Lup, Taako & Merle, I need you all to go out and do some scouting. Get the lay of the land for us, alright? If we’re gonna be spending time here, we need to know what’s going on. Magnus, stay with Barry. We need to figure out this regeneration thing. If we can’t die or whatever, that would be helpful to know. Lucrecia, you're with me on the ship in case anyone needs backup. Does that sound good for everyone?” 

Immediately, Davenport was back to taking command. Nobody questioned his leadership, and they all got to preparing themselves for their allotted missions. There was a comfort in taking commands from their captain. It seemed that, despite all the weird shit going on, Capn’port was still Capn’port. And it seemed that it would always be that way. He was strong, and he was their rock. Nobody had any reason to think otherwise. Nobody, other than Magnus… 

***

The planet they brought the ship down into was a strange one. Not only were there no people, but there were also no animals either. The only thing that seemed to be live in this entire world was plant life. Merle was excited about this, but nobody else was as psyched. When they landed it seemed to be the middle of spring, so the chances that all the animals were just hibernating seemed pretty slim. The sun hung low in the sky as Merle and the twins got the first reconnaissance of the world done. 

“Really? Nothing?? Not a squirrel? Not a bird? This entire planet sucks!” 

Taako was not having any of this. Almost as soon as the Starblaster touched down in a clearing in the massive forest that covered the surface of most of the planet, he started complaining. Lup wasn’t as unhappy, because she could bound from treetop to treetop without having to worry about Davenport getting upset at her. Between her laughter and Taako’s moaning, Merle felt like he was back at home in his druidic enclave with the younger Pan followers. The thought made him laugh out loud.

“What are you laughing at old man? Do you think this is funny? Just because you’re all  _ one with the plants  _ doesn’t mean I want to get up all in this shit.” 

That just made Merle laugh more, which compounded with Lup’s. Soon the spring forest was filled with laughter that echoed back to the Starblaster. Soon, their stones of farspeach crackled on as Magnus’ voice joined them. 

“What are you chucklefucks going on about? You better not be having too much fun without me! Doctor Bluejeans over here is almost done stealing my blood, but I’ll be coming after you three just as soon as he lets me!” 

After another round of laughter at Barry’s indignant “Hey!” at Magnus’ joke, they agreed to all meetup. The sun was beginning to set anyway, and the twins wanted to have a cookout. Merle had found some plants that seemed similar enough to some things at home, and they felt the need to just get cooking. A crew meal felt like the right thing to do. So that night, as the sun went down, the IPRE met on the deck of the Starblaster for a meal. 

As the sun went down, they watched in awe as they watched not one, not two or three, but four moons rise up over the horizon in. Each one glowed a different color. First, a soft green, then piercing ice blue, the third a calming orange, and the final one a harsh fiery red. As the quintuple moonrise started, the casual conversation stumbled to a standstill. They all sat in silence until the final moon rose, and a few minutes after that. Taako was the first to break the silence. 

“Hot diggety shit, that was a baller moonrise.”

***

Magnus was the first to wake, as usual. He would usually get up for his morning run and be back before anyone else had even gotten out of bed. But this morning, as he stepped out on to the deck of the Starblaster, he froze in his tracks. He had been expecting the cool breeze of the day before, not the icy chill that now hung in the air. It wasn’t so cold that he literally froze, but enough that he could see his breath condense into mist in the air. There was frost coating the deck, and he almost slipped as his foot crunched through the thin layer of ice. He looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was much smaller than it had been the day before. He sighed. His morning run would have to wait. 

Barry was almost giddy with excitement as he stepped out into the frosty morning air. A world where the seasons changed by the day? Now, this was something he could throw himself into. 

Davenport was less excited. He immediately started running checks on the ship to see if anything had gone wrong with the sudden temperature change. He knew that the ship was made to handle the wild fluctuations of deep space, but it couldn’t hurt to check. 

Lup couldn’t really care less. So the weather changed. As long as she got to keep hanging out in the trees with her brother and friends, she would be happy. Especially Barry. They had some tests to run, and he seemed really excited about this whole day season thing… 

Lucrecia was ecstatic, but as usual, she didn’t show it. The only way anyone noticed anything was different was the marked increase in pen scratching sounds coming from her rooms. She made some notes to talk to Merle and Barry about making some new kind of paper. She was going to need more notebooks if they were really going to be on this planet for a year. 

Taako’s outlook on the season changes were similar to Lup’s. So what, the weather changed. Big freaking deal. There was still nothing to  _ do  _ here. He resigned himself to spending the time on this planet just being the chef. At least he knew that he enjoyed that. 

Merle was possibly the most in love with this new world. Every day was a new season, so every day was a new opportunity to study and learn about plant life in this new world. It was just different enough from their homeworld to keep him captivated all day every day. Merle, as usual, found joy in everything he did in this new world. Merle was always the one to find joy. 

***

They had seen the light fall during their first week on the planet, but it had been so far away that Barry and Lup almost immediately declared it a lost cause to search for it. All they knew was the general direction it was in, and that left they seven of them with an entire planet to search. It just wasn’t worth the effort. 

Because they weren’t concerned about the light that year, Barry and Lup put most of their work into trying to figure out what they could and couldn’t eat. Merle and Taako were helpful in that regard, but they both had their own things that they would rather be doing, or at least, Taako claimed he had big important things to be doing. 

Magnus spent the year with Merle. Like the year before, Merle just wanted to explore. Magnus was game for that, and so, about a month into their stay they packed up some supplies and set off in a random direction. The promised Davenport that they would be back within six months, as protocol dictated, but each crossed their fingers behind their backs ad they made the promise. Magnus was pretty confident that they couldn’t die anyway, so it didn’t matter whether or not they came back, and Merle couldn’t find it in himself to be scared of such a peaceful and wonderful world. And so off they went. 

***

“Where are they!? They swore they would be back in six months,  _ Ten Months Ago!”  _

Davenport was furious. The darkness was back. They had been awoken to that deep boom that shook them from their beds, and when they had bet on the deck to see the world leeched of color, he had only counted five of the crew on deck. Lup, Taako, Lucrecia, Barry, and himself. He knew they had to leave, but intentionally leaving  _ two  _ crew members behind felt terrible. Barry and Lup weren’t being helpful.

“Capn’port, based on everything we know, as soon as we escape, they should be back. What Lup and I have figured out is that we have somehow been woven into the fabric of reality, so once we go through, we all reset. As long as the ship gets through, we should be fine.” 

“I appreciate the thought Barry, but as you said, we should be. The keyword being should. We don’t know. What if what happened to Magnus was a fluke? I don’t want to just…” 

He was interrupted by a tendril of darkness slamming into the ground just a few hundred feet away from the ship. His voice was drowned out by the crash, soon followed by the screams and howls of an army, hellbent on destruction. Their destruction. 

“Dammnit. Fine! Flight positions, everyone!” 

***

Magnus and Merle both had had an exhausting night. They had found a cave and had been spelunking for just over two weeks. The day before the darkness descended, Merle had misstepped, requiring Magnus to attempt a particularly harrowing rescue. Both of them were exhausted, and they only woke up to the sound of their tent being shredded open. 

Magnus was fighting before he was even awake. He practically slept with this ax, and so the first shadow that thought it had gotten the jump on him actually got its head removed, as did the second and third. By then, Merle was up as well, showering Magnus with blessings and buffs, as well as harrowing the shadows with his own brand of attacks, most of which consisted of just strange insults. 

Together they actually made an impressive fighting force. They managed to clear out the area around them and get outside and look to the sky. That was the first time they saw a sight that would, over the course of a century, become a familiar one. 

A streak of silver, soaring up and away from the world, while a darkness of incomprehensible size descends down upon them. 

  
  



	3. Lucretia - Year 3 - The Most Beautiful Elves In The World

Lucretia’s place when she regenerated was her favorite spot on the ship. When the threads of light spun them all back together, she was always woven back sitting crosslegged in the crow’s nest, looking down over the planar system. She remembered that when they had left their homeworld, she had been writing, as usual. Unlike the others, she had been able to keep her panic at seeing the mass of darkness down. She had done her duty of writing what needed to be written. But that notebook didn’t regenerate with her. It was strange then, to be stitched together in the position of holding a pen and notebook, without actually doing so. Nevertheless, she immediately opened the hatch and climbed down to meet up with her crew. 

Davenport had immediately called another meeting in the dining room. As they all filed in and took their respective places at the table, Lucretia took an extra second to go and grab a notebook from her room. This meeting was going to need to be recorded. After she sat down, silence filled the room. After a few tense seconds, Merle spoke.

“Sooo..? Are we just going to sit here or is something going to happen? I’ve got places to be, things to do! I’m a busy man you know.” 

Nobody laughed. Lup snorted a little, but after a harsh look from Davenport, she quickly silenced that. Then, he spoke. 

“Listen. I know the circumstances are strange. I know we don’t know what’s going on, but what you and Magnus did was unacceptable. You promised to be back in six months.” 

He sighed, and the ferocity in his tone faded slightly. 

“I know that after being regenerated Magnus, you might feel invincible, but we don’t know enough about how this works to be careless. What if it was a one-time thing? What if we only come back under certain circumstances? We don’t have enough information. I’m asking that you please just be more careful. Please. I don’t want to… We can’t afford to lose anyone.” 

Lucretia looked down at her journal. She had been writing under the table, and she was glad for that. She had a habit of anticipating what people were going to say, and she was very good at it. More than once, she had written what someone had meant to say, rather than what words they had spoken. But this time she had guessed wrong. What she had written was

_ “…asking you to please be more careful. Please. I don’t want to lose anyone else.”  _

She considered erasing the mistake as she usually did. Eventually, she decided not to. It might have been an error, but she felt like this was something important. So she wrote the correction underneath the typo and continued her notetaking. She would think more about that later. 

***

The world Davenport brought them down into was full of life. This time, it was humanoid life too. Taako couldn’t be happier. As soon as they could see the surface of the planet, they could see the telltale signs of civilization. It was night when they approached the surface, and lights shone out of the darkness. The lights of cities and towns. The entire planet seemed to be lit up. 

“Fuck yeah! I’ve missed actual people! Not that y’all aren’t like, chill, but two years with no other contact is  _ draining _ .” 

Taako was standing on the deck, looking out over the ci below, combing his hair with his special hairbrush. He had a habit of transmuting it into a different material each day, just to keep his magic fresh, or so he said. Today it was a shimmering aquamarine, the same color as so many of the glass spires of the city they had decided to descend over. 

The city was breathtaking. It was built into the side of a mountain that seemed to halve been hollowed out. From above, it looked like a massive geode that had been cracked open by a furious god. Every building was made of some sort of translucent crystal, tinted a blue-green that sparkled beautifully in the moonlight. Davenport decided to wait until morning before entering the city, so they landed the ship a few miles away from the edges, out where nothing had been cultivated. 

***

That night was uneventful. Anyone else would have had trouble landing a ship of the Starblaster’s size on the uneven side of the mountain, but such a feat was nothing for a pilot of Davenport’s skill. He was almost grateful for the challenge. His mind had been elsewhere since they left the day season world and had to leave Merle and Magnus behind. He was so out of it he had almost told the entire crew about… No. It was best not to think about that. Just think about landing the ship. And the mission. Protocol. Get it done. Work. Get the job done. Keep them safe. 

Taako and Lup spend the entire night preparing for the morning. As soon as Davenport declared that they weren’t going into town until morning, they immediately started meditating in preparation for a long night of getting ready. It had been two years since they had anyone to impress, and by the gods, they were going to knock these crystal city dwellers off their feet. Or whatever they had. It didn’t matter. They were going to be stunned. 

Lucretia couldn’t sleep. She kept waking up to nightmares about crystals singing to her. After the third time, she gave up on sleep and looked over her notes for the last day. Just some routine maintenance, cleaning up. Routine until she came over one sentence that she couldn’t get out of her head. 

_ “Please. I don’t want to lose anyone else.”  _

What did that mean? It could just be a typo, but she felt like it was something more. Maybe she had just been spending too much time with Merle. He liked the idea that everything had a meaning, being a cleric, and all that. Maybe he was just rubbing off on her. But she still couldn’t bring herself to erase it.

Merle stayed out on the deck. He had found a new hobby during their strange journey through new worlds. He loved looking at the new stars and finding new constellations in them. He could make up stories about the way they fit together, and nobody could tell him that he was wrong, or that that wasn’t how the stories went, because after all, nobody else knew either. He liked that feeling of freedom. He felt that joy that he was always searching for. And Merle was happy. 

Magnus and Barry slept like rocks. 

***

They were all awakened by the same sound. It was the sound of laughter, and it was a sound they had all come to love. It was Lup’s laughter, and it filled the ship at the crack of dawn. It woke them all up, but all of them with the exception of Lucretia were able to fall back asleep for those extra few critical hours of sleep. 

Lucretia, on the other hand, had no interest in missing out on the sunrise. And so, she gathered up her sketchbook and went out onto the deck, intent on having some time to herself. Some time that, for once, wouldn’t be for writing, but drawing. A small change, but a change nonetheless. But as she stepped out into the brisk morning air, she wasn’t greeted by the calm silence she expected. Instead, she found the twins, fully decked out and ready for their expedition into the city of crystal. 

They had really outdone themselves. Over the last two years, they had been brainstorming outfits, coming up with ways they could go together, and had even made some pieces themselves. Now, on the eve of their first expedition into this new world, it had all come to a point. Lup was wearing a long flowing cape with golden trim that she had enchanted to smolder with flame. Her hair was braided and piled up on her head, encircled in a golden crown that also sparked with motes of fire. 

Taako had chosen to be the ice to her fire, literally. He had traded out his usual purple pointed hat in favor of letting his hair flow freely in an artificial breeze that Lucretia thought was probably coming from an enchanted pendant around his neck. His whole color scheme was in blues and whites, the perfect contrast to Lup’s reds and oranges. Together they looked like unto gods, prepared to take the world by storm. When they saw Lucretia step on deck, they immediately struck poses that would have made anyone surprised that they were, in fact, scientists, not models. 

“Creesh! Check us out! Aren’t we  _ fabulous!”  _

Lucretia smiled. Then she remembered why she came out here in the first place.

“You two look great. I did come out here looking for something to draw, and I think I may have found the two best models in existence.” Then she feigned a ponderous look. 

“That is if you can stand still that long…” 

Her subtle jab was exactly what the twins needed to get in on the fun. And so, as the sun rose over the crystal city, Lucretia sat and drew the two most beautiful elves in the world, from the deck of the most amazing ship in the world. 

***

The city was unfortunately not all they had hyped it up to be. The people there weren’t anything like them or the people of their homeworld. Sure, they were bipedal, but that was about the only physical similarity. The first thing that struck the four that went into the city, Lup, Taako, Magnus, and Barry, was that everyone seemed to be made of the same crystalline substance as the buildings. They didn’t speak or even acknowledge the presence of the IPRE crew. Lup and Taako especially were not fond of this result. 

“You have got to be  _ shitting me!  _ Another year of just you goofuses! I can’t believe this!” 

Taako said this while waving his hand over what he assumed was the face of one of the crystal people. The person didn’t even slow their pace and just continued walking on to wherever it is they were going. 

“Hey, check this out. They’re communicating. Like, they’re living lives the same way we would, just in a completely different way.” 

Barry was pointing across the shimmering street, where two of the beings were sitting outside of one of the buildings, just staring at each other. Then, as they watched, inside their heads, lights began to flash. Beams of those lights shot out from one of the beings into the other. Even from across the street, it was a sight to behold.

The light show went on for several minutes, during which the crew found themselves entranced by the strange sight. Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it was over. The two crystal people simply got up and went their separate ways, with no sign that anything out of the ordinary had occurred. 

“Holy shit. You all saw that right? That wasn’t some weird trick of the light?” 

Magnus was awestruck. He had tried to match the twins in his own fashionable getup, but for him, that pretty much just consisted of a pair of sunglasses and clean sweatpants. Even though his shades though, the other three could tell he was close to tears. They all knew Magnus was moved by beautiful things, but seeing him like this was something new for Barry. 

“Hey man, are you okay? Do we need to go back to the ship? We can cut this excursion short if you need it. It doesn’t seem like there’s much to find anyway…” 

“Nah, I’ll be good. It’s just… man that was beautiful. They were communicating something and it was amazing…” 

He faded out. Barry was still concerned, but eventually, they just decided to continue their sweep of the city. Maybe there was something that they could communicate with. It was worth checking out. Based on what they had seen so far, while the inhabitants of this world weren’t kind or outgoing, they weren’t hostile either, and that was something to be grateful for. 

Magnus and Taako returned to the Starblaster a few hours before sunset. Even though the inhabitants of the city weren’t all that interesting, the architecture was fascinating. Barry and Lup had opted to stay a little later to explore some more. Even after some light ribbing from Taako, they still stayed firm in their choice to wander the crystalline metropolis themselves for a few hours. And so, they were left to their own devices. 

Davenport was very unhappy with this decision. 

“Groups of three! At least! C’mon guys! It’s not that hard. Just make sure there are at least three people together at all times.” 

Magnus laughed off reprimand, and Taako didn’t even respond. He just went down into the kitchen and started making dinner, mumbling something about the “damn geo-dudes” having absolutely nothing worth cooking. 

“Capn’port, you’ve got to stop thinking in terms of old protocol. In case you haven’t noticed, things are a bit different than they were when those rules were put in place.” 

He made a fair point. They were also having this conversation on the deck and Lucretia could hear every word for recording from her spot up in the crow’s nest. She was yet to form her own opinions on the breaking of protocol, but she always thought it best to hear all sides of an argument before throwing in her lot with one, especially when one voice on one side or the other could make such a difference. 

Magnus and Davenport didn’t know she was up there, and that was most likely for the best. People tended to put on a front when they knew they were being recorded, even if they didn’t intentionally mean to. This was something that she felt needed to be left untainted. She had a feeling that this mission of theirs was going to last a while, and following protocol was going to be an important step in how they viewed the entire thing. And so she sat silently and took her notes. 

***

They soon learned that nothing was going to be learned from the crystal city. It was unanimously decided that they would pick up and fly somewhere else. They hadn’t even seen the Light fall this year, but Barry assured them it had. From what he and Lup could tell, they were in a cycle, as they had said. It consisted of a few basic events that would repeat until, well, forever, as far as they could tell from their current state. 

First, they would be put back into their “recorded states” on the Starblaster. That everyone had pretty much figured out right away. Then the light of creation would fall, and the Darkness would observe it. Then after roughly a year, the rest of the darkness would catch up and eat, well, everything. It was a pretty bleak prediction, but nobody had any reason not to trust their science officer. 

So finding the Light themselves was a lost cause, but finding an intelligent civilization that could help them was not. And so the search began again for life they could communicate with. And almost as soon after, the search ended again.

The reason for that was not for lack of trying, or for lack of finding anything. It just seemed that the entire world was solely inhabited by these crystal people whos only form of interaction was with flashes of light. They all lived in cities whos majesty at least matched the first one that the crew saw, but the base crystal varied. Throughout the year, they saw kingdoms made of shimmering quartz and whole towns crafted purely of amethyst. 

There was one occasion that they particularly remembered. They saw a city that appeared to be carved out of a single chunk of black opal. When they first saw it, there was a moment of fear, because it looked exactly like that force that had come to feature in all of their nightmares. It looked like the darkness that had been following them, that had consumed the worlds they had lived on previously, and it was an entire town crafted from it. They decided to skip over landing in that one. 

They did end up  _ finding  _ the light that year. Near the end of their eleventh month on that plane, Davenport had decided to take a night flight. He had slept the entire day before in preparation and was excited to have the whole night with just him and his ship. It was a wonderful night, and soaring over civilizations made of different crystals was an experience that he wasn’t going to soon forget. 

As the sun began to rise over the horizon, he had to squint to be able to tell what it was he was actually seeing. It seemed like the ground was melting up into the sky, like the planet itself was bleeding up into the fiery sunrise. After a few minutes of trying to make it out, he realized why he was having such a tough time. There was a city on the horizon, and this one was forged out of blazing red fire opal. There as also a second light source, a beam of light shooting up from the city like a beacon. It was a beacon that could only be one thing. That kind of light could only come from one thing. So not only was there a beautiful city shining with the light of the rising sun but clearly the inhabitants of that city had the Light of Creation. It was a sight to see, and he was a little sad that nobody else got the chance to witness it. 

Unbeknownst to the captain, he wasn’t the only crew member to lay eyes on the bleeding sunrise. Lucretia had awoken early that morning, and silently taken her place at the top of the mast, looking down on the world. She thought about meeting with Davenport, but the need for some time to herself won out. She brought her sketchbook again, this time intent on actually getting some landscapes done. And by the gods did she find some landscapes. She wasn’t at all prepared for the sight that greeted her that morning, but she threw herself into the challenge of creating art. All she had with her were some pencils that Merle had managed to work with Barry to create in the last cycle. They weren’t the greatest materials, but they were what she had. And she was going to try. 

Everyone met in the dining room for breakfast and briefing that morning. After the sun had gotten over the horizon, it had become clear that, yes, the Light of Creation was in this fire opal city. The city itself was built out of a canyon that carved for miles through the gray slate of the biome. Most it was technically underground, but the tips of the tallest towers poked up over the ledge of the great cliff. The beacon that could only be coming from the Light of Creation was emanating from the tip of one of these buildings, piercing the sky like a spear. 

“Well, these people haven’t been even remotely interested in us before, so I suggest that we just waltz in and take it. What are they gonna do, flash at us?” 

It was a fair point. Each city that they had entered before had been filled with the same crystalline population that only communicated through those strange flashes of light. Not a single one throughout the entire year had even acknowledged their presence. So the plan was settled. Taako, Lup Magnus, and Barry would go in, find the light, and take it. Simple. Easy. No harm, no foul. What could go wrong? 

***

“Geo-dudes are mad! Very very angry! We are on our way back to the ship! Get prepared for takeoff right the fuck  _ now!”  _

The sound of Taako yelling through his stone of farspeach as accompanied by the telltale sounds of Lup’s shouting as she cast her combative spells, Magnus shouting, and the cacophony of shattering crystal. He interrupted his own sentence to cast a spell, and then the small living room was filled with a horrible ringing sound that emanated from the stone that was sitting on the coffee table in the middle of the room. The sound was followed by more shattering glass sounds, as well as Taako yelling, 

“Hell yeah! Shatter, bitches! I haven’t found a use for that spell, like, ever!” 

Davenport had left to get the ship started as soon as the stone has chimed on. His hand of cards lay discarded on the table, where he and Merle had been halfway through their game. They had invited Lucretia to play, but she had to go through some of her notes for the past week and sort them out. She also genuinely did just enjoy being in their presence while they played. She knew Merle cheated, but couldn’t tell if Davenport didn’t know or just didn’t care. Either way, there was a calming presence that suffused the room while the three of them relaxed. 

That feeling of calm was shattered just as surely as the crystals as soon as the stone started yelling in Taako’s voice. All thoughts of peace were discarded, and replaced with worry over their friends. As soon as they understood what was going on, Davenport bolted to the cockpit to get the ship running. Merle grabbed his holy book, if it could be called that, and ran to the gangplank and prepared to get healing, leaving Lucretia by herself in the living room. 

She felt a familiar feeling begin to wash over her. It was a feeling she had told herself was pointless many, many times over, but refused to go away. It was a feeling of helplessness, a feeling that told her that she was unable to do anything. Merle could heal, Davenport could fly the ship, the Twins could do magic, Barry was a genius and Magnus could always be counted on to keep everyone safe. What could she do? Put some words on a page. Sometimes she just felt so helpless, and she couldn’t do anything, why was she even here, what was her place in all this, what was even the point… 

But those thoughts weren’t productive. She shoved them away, as she always had. She had work to do. She grabbed her notebook and pen and ran up to the deck, ready to catalog whatever awful sight was sure to greet her eyes. 

***

Nobody died, thank the gods. But nobody got out unscathed either. When they all got back, Mangus and Lup both had long shards of fire opal sticking out of their backs and arms from their escape. Barry had a slash running the length of his arm, but Taako had suffered the most grievous loss, at least according to him. One of the blade-like crystals that had fallen from one of the buildings had torn his iconic hat nearly in two. He was lamenting that far more than the many, many small cuts he had obtained from their mad dash through the city. 

“No,  _ you  _ don’t understand. Sure, the team got a little roughed up, and that sucks. But Merle can’t wave his hands around and fix this. This hat is  _ art!  _ I’m going to be out of commission until I fix this. I think you all are seriously underestimating the severity of the impact this will have on the crew.”

Taako’s antics brought a lighter mood to what had become a grim meeting in the living area. They had recovered the light, but now they had an understanding of what it did. Davenport asked Barry to recount what they found one more time. 

“Yeah. Yeah okay, one more time.”

***

They had walked through the main street, completely unnoticed, just like every other civilization they had encountered in this strange world. The main street was a deep ruby that shimmered beneath their every step, which would have been mesmerizing if they hadn’t seen it so many times in so many other crystal cities. They knew that they just had to get in, get the light, and get out. They made their way towards the building with the blinding light shooting out of its tip, idly chatting about what amounted to nothing. The only strange thing about this city in particular was the lack of people. There were very few of the crystal beings milling about in the streets in this particular city, but it wasn’t strange enough for the four representatives of the IPRE to take note. 

As soon as they entered the tower, they could tell something was up. The first thing was that the entire building was chock-full of the crystal people. Milling around, flashing at each other, or just standing still. It was a little difficult to move around, the building was so jam-packed. As they got closer to the center, they could tell why. There, on a pedestal in the very center of the tower was the Light of Creation. Around it, at the four cardinal points, knelt four of the crystal beings. Five beams of searing light shot out from the pedestal. One directly into the faces of each of the kneeling fire-opal beings, and one straight up through the tip of the tower. 

“Now that is some freaky shit.” 

Magnus’ astute observation was echoed silently by the other three members of the expedition. Barry was kicking himself. Of course, the beings who communicated through  _ light  _ would have some sort of connection with the  _ Light of Creation.  _ He had been an idiot and had led them into the situation completely unprepared. Before he could say anything, however, Magnus already was rushing in. 

He ran in and shoved one of the four opalescent creatures to the ground. Before waiting for a reaction, he grabbed the light and yelled,

“Barold! Catch! Then run!”

And he hurled it overhand directly at possibly the least athletic member of their crew. On instinct, Barry ducked, and the Light rolled out the door. 

“Shit! Sorry! I’ll get it, but let’s get the fuck out of here!” 

The last comment was in response to the crystalline beings, who for once, had taken notice of the crew’s actions. As one, they rose and began marching in haunting unison after them. Lup and Taako were already out the door. 

It seemed like the entire city was instantly up in arms. None of the citizens had weapons, but they were made of crystal, and as the crew soon learned, getting punched by what essentially amounted to rock did not feel good. It got even worse when they broke and turned into basically living swords. Taako updated the rest of the crew about what was going on, and in his usual Taako fashion, requested that they get the ship started so they could skedaddle. And, being a great crew, that’s exactly what they did. 

At the end of the year, they sat in the living room, with the box holding the Light of Creation on the table in the middle of the room. The box was an industrial behemoth, made for containing hazardous material. Davenport was doing his thing, outrunning the all-consuming darkness that had, once again, come to devour the world they had landed on. 

They felt the familiar thrum run through the ship as the bond engine kicked on and the left the Prime Material Plane, a feeling that had once filled them all with joy. Back at home, it had meant that their grand mission was starting. It had meant that all the work they had put into becoming the IPRE had meant something. But now, it just meant that another cycle was over and that a force was coming to destroy the world they had come to know for a year. 

But this time, they were too preoccupied to even be consumed by the existential horror of their situation. Because even though an inch and a half of lead and steel, the six of them could feel the pull of the Light. It called out to them, begging them to open the box to bask in its majesty. But they all resisted, and just sat in silence as the world below them was assaulted. It wasn’t easy, but they all just sat and stared at that box. Just before the strings of light pulled them apart and stitched them together again, Lup put into words the question they were all thinking. 

“What the hell  _ is  _ that thing?”


	4. Merle - Year Four - Craveablity

When they had originally left the homeworld, Merle had been belowdecks, trying to teach Magnus how to play a simple dwarven card game. It was the same one that he spent so much time playing with Davenport, and he had been hoping to eventually get the whole crew in on a game. He knew it was going to take a while, but you have to start somewhere, right? When they heard the twins shouting from the deck, Magnus immediately dropped what they were doing and sprinted up the stairs to see what was going on. Merle wasn’t quite as agile and was a little bit behind. They were blasted apart into strands of light just as Merle cleared the doorway, and now, each time they regenerated, the first thing he saw of their new reality was Magnus’ crimson joggers. 

Nothing was different about their regeneration this time. Same glowing threads, same echoes of the crew, same bright red butt. It had become a custom to meet in the dining room for debriefing, so they all just filed in, without anyone giving the order to do so. Barry was the first one to speak. 

“So. First order of business. The Light is gone as soon as we crossed over, it disappeared. So I guess we’ll have to hunt it down again.” 

His announcement seemed to drain some of the energy out of the room. Taako sighed. Merle tried to bring the mood back up again.

“Hell yeah! Let’s do it again, round three!” 

“It’s the fourth cycle, Merle.” 

It didn’t matter, but nobody was in the mood for optimism at the moment. Taako hadn’t even started a celebratory regeneration meal. Davenport and Lucretia were too shook up just hearing about what the Light had done to those crystal people and the four who had seen it could barely get the sight out of their heads. The entire population of a city, completely entranced by this  _ fucking  _ ball. It had been terrifying to behold. 

Merle was trying to stay his usual bubbly positive self, but it was proving to be difficult. Seeing the crew so shaken was taking its toll on him as well, but he found that to put even more fuel on the fire of his positivity. He was going to cheer up his crew if it killed him. And if it did, so what? He would be back next year. 

“‘Cmon everyone! Into the living room, we go! Ol’ Merley has got a few tricks up his sleeve that will bring this sour mood around!” 

He jumped up out of his chair and slowly started a strange combination of swaying and marching towards the door to the living room. Magnus and Barry were the only ones to follow. Lucretia mentioned that she needed to get some notes down about the Light’s influence on them all, and Davenport had to bring them into the new system. The twins just up and left, without a word to anyone. Merle was disappointed, but he wasn’t going to let a few deserters ruin his fun. And so, once He, Barry, and Magnus got into the “Zone of Coolnessocity”, which he had decided to call the living room, he got to work teaching them how to play some of his favorite dwarven games from his youth. 

***

The planet they descended into was an odd one, at least from an aerial viewpoint. It seemed that the entire planet was covered in some sort of tan cloud. Davenport was nervous about lowering into it, so they spent the first couple of days just circling the world, trying to find a break in the storm. During that initial flyover, they saw the light fall and punch through the cloud, but the hole it made was nearly instantly covered up again. After nearly a week of just searching, they concluded that the entire planet was covered in this weird brown fog. 

They didn’t have a choice. They couldn’t spend the entire year hovering above the surface of the planet. The ship wasn’t made for that, and they would run out of supplies long before that became an issue. So eventually, Davenport cautiously brought the ship into the dark fog. For a few minutes, they could see nothing but dirt brown smog out of the portholes of their ship. And then, they emerged, and the sight that greeted them was even worse. 

The world below them was almost entirely uniform in color as well as form. As far as they could see, the land was a drab slate gray, as was everything on it. From horizon to horizon were buildings as well. But the structures were nothing like the glorious spires and towers from the crystal world or even the rustic habitats from the animal kingdom. The entire world they could observe was blanketed in low, boxy buildings of the same gray concrete of the rest of the land. 

Only one thing broke up the dry monotony of the planet. Every couple of miles, a much larger structure shot up out of the uniform landscape. These colossal buildings had massive smokestacks that were constantly belching out that brown smoke that blanketed the world. They were spaced evenly over the surface of the world, and each one seemed like a carbon copy of the next. Nothing in this entire world seemed original at all. It was all just the same, over and over again. 

Davenport had made everyone stay below as they traversed the cloud, and now that they had, everyone began to slowly migrate up to the deck. Just seeing the drab landscape made them feel like getting some fresh air. But as they congregated, they found that even that was going to be in short supply this year. The air was thick with smog, and just being out in it made their eyes water. Almost instantly, everyone returned to the air filtered living room. 

The little amount of energy that the crew had regained during their week-long flyover was immediately siphoned away at the sight of the pollution filled planet. Even Merle was unable to keep his positive attitude. 

“There was nothing green. Nothing at all! How can these people even live like that? It’s just so depressing.” 

He sat in the large reclining chair in the living room with his head in his hands. His holy book, which was just a loose conglomeration of pages that were bound together with twine, sat on the table in front of them. Its leather cover was stamped with the pipes of Pan, which normally inspired the love of nature in those who saw them. But today, they only brought sadness and the memory of something they, in all likelihood, wouldn’t be seeing for twelve months. 

“Well think about it this way, Merle. Maybe you can do some witnessing and bring them the Word of Pan, like you are always talking about. Maybe bring some of nature’s goodness to this place.” 

Merle’s eyes widened as the realization dawned on him that he might be able to bring spread the good word around this polluted world. 

“Creesh! Why would you even mention that? Now that’s all he’s going to talk about for the next year!” 

Taako threw his hands up in the air, exasperated at the mere idea.

“Twelve months! Every sentence out of that dwarf’s mouth for twelve months is going to be chockablock full of ‘the word of Dan’ and ‘the power of the forest’. Lucretia, did you even think about that before you said it? We won’t get a moment’s rest! Gods ‘Creesh, I thought you out of all of us would think before you speak.” 

Davenport, who hadn’t said a word since they punched through the cover of smog, finally spoke up. What he said, however, was not what any of the rest of the crew expected. 

“You know, maybe it could do some good. If they trust Merle, maybe they’ll be willing to help us search for the Light? We haven’t had a good opportunity to study it, and I think that doing that should be our primary goal right now. Maybe a nature god is just what these people need right now, and if that gets them to trust us and get us the Light, that in the end helps them out even more. Remember, if we get the Light, that darkness doesn’t eat the world.” 

It was a fair point. Getting the Light should be mission number one and doing whatever it takes to do so made sense. And, as usual, Davenport’s plan sounded like it would work. There was just one thing that he had said that bothered Lup. 

“Do you think that is what it does? Is it really eating planes? Like, it doesn’t seem like a biological creature. It doesn’t look like it can get, I don’t know,  _ hungry _ ?” 

Taako was the only one with a response to his sisters’ question, as was so often the case. It was a rare occurrence that someone else could match either one of them in a battle of wits, other than Lucretia, but she enjoyed sitting and watching. 

“Well LuLu, you’re right in one regard. That bad boy deffo doesn’t look like a normal biological animal, so it most likely isn’t hungry. But, it is possible that it is a manifestation of something far more powerful. So maybe if it isn’t  _ hungry,  _ it’s might be that it is just hunger  _ itself _ . The feeling of hunger, given a massive physical form.” 

It wasn’t foolproof. It wasn’t anything more than speculation, but it was all they had. And so, that’s what they started calling it. From that point forward, the all-consuming darkness that had attacked their home and consumed so many worlds was known to them as The Hunger. Just giving it a name felt like a step in the right direction. 

They all knew that, at some point, it would most likely kill them. But giving it a name felt like they were taking that first step in that great journey that was fighting back. A name made it feel like something tangible, something that could be beaten. Simply calling it darkness made it sound ethereal and untouchable. But now it had a name. And that was as good a place to start as any. 

***

The entire world was the same, so it didn’t matter where they landed. Realizing this, Davenport simply brought them down directly under where they had come through the cloud cover. While they had talked, the ship had been hovering in place, and during that, a small crowd had gathered. And very literally a small crowd. The people of this planet were all very small and dense, not unlike the dwarves of their home planet. But these were no dwarves, as Merle was disappointed to find out. 

First, they had no facial hair to speak of. Not even the oldest of the men had the smallest beard. But that was not the only thing that set them apart from dwarves, or people that the IPRE crew knew in general. While people of their home usually had some sort of flair at least, these people seemed to be lumped together out of clay and then left alone. Their skin was the same slate gray as their buildings, and every piece of their clothing was brown as the clouds that blotted out the sky. All of this was sad enough, but not a single one of them smiled. Even the obviously older ones had no creases on their faces to show they had smiled in their lives at all. Life on this world was a depressing one, and it seemed like it had always been so. 

As the Starblaster touched down on the gray stone, it was greeted by a party of these drab not-dwarves. They crowded around the ship, enough that Davenport worried about lowering the gangplank, for fear of crushing them. He called a meeting to figure out what to do. As usual, they met in the dining room. 

“Well, if we want to make an impression on them, we want to make some them think we’re tough shit. That’s basic tactics 101.” 

On a ship full of scientists, nobody knew whether or not to disagree with Magnus. He was the tactical officer, so they agreed to go along with his plan. 

“Merle, you’re going to be in front, because you want to get their attention the most. Cast a spell that makes some light you know? Grab their eyes.”

“How about light?”

“Perfect. The rest of us will just have to back him up. We don’t know too much about these guys, and they might be hostile. So be prepared for an attack, but don’t be obvious about it. Lup, Taako, make a flash and a bang, show off. I know you two can manage that.”

The twins looked at each other. Showing off was as art for they had specialized in their entire lives. This was a mission they could most certainly handle. 

“Davenport and Barry. I need you guys to just take up space for this first interaction. Look big, if you can. Just, be there, you know. Lucretia…”

  
  


“I’ll be in the crow’s nest, taking notes. I don’t exactly cut a menacing figure, so I won’t add to the dramatics. I’ll be available if need be, but I don’t foresee that being necessary. I’m not exactly a fighter.” 

And so the plan was set. The gangplank issue was easy enough. As soon as the crew came out on the deck, the strange creatures backed away from the ship, giving it more than a wide enough berth to lower. And lower it did. And as it did, down walked the crew of the Starblaster, in all of their crimson uniformed glory. Taako showered himself in a majestic display of sparks with a suped-up prestidigitation spell, and Lup called forth twin columns of flame from her palms that shot up into the sky. Merle conjured divine light from his holy book that played across the face of the awed crowd. Barry and Davenport flanked the three of them but their mediocre exit was more than made up for by Magnus. He followed, his battle-ax held over his shoulder like he could either take off someone’s head or take a nap. His massive frame dwarfed everyone else by a mile, and his entrance was followed by a gasp that rippled through the crowd like a wave through an ocean. 

“Greetings people of… Greetings! I come to you bearing the word of almighty Pan! I come to you bringing hope for joy and love, the hope of nature, and love for one another! I am Merle High…”

Merle’s speech was abruptly cut off by one of the small people charging him out of the crowd. Lup reacted first. Without even blinking, she carved a smoking gash in the stone at the assailants’ feet. He stopped dead in his tracks, his brown leather shoes blackened by the heat. She calmly waved her hand in the air, and the smoke cleared. 

“Yeah, there will be none of that here. I’m Lup, and if you so much as take a step over that there line, I will not hesitate to turn you into ashes.”

As she said her name, it was echoed through the group. 

“Lup?”

“Lup. Lup!” 

Soon, there were echoes of her name being spoken in hushed whispers through the throng. It was strange to behold, but nothing they couldn’t handle. Until another one of them stepped forward. This one was clearly older. His skin was wrinkled, and he walked with a limp. The crowd parted to let him through. 

“Oh wielders of light and flame, we humble ourselves before you. Tell us of your names, so that we may bask in their glory.” 

With that, the assembled people fell to their knees. The sound echoed for a few seconds, and during that time, the crew instinctively looked to Davenport, unsure of what to do. All of them, except for Taako. 

“Well, first things first, I'm Takko. And then next things next, we need to know some things about you, little dudes. Namely, what are you? And who are you, Mr. Leader Man?”

Immediately, the one he had directed his questions at responded.

“We are the Dess. I am the Dessan, the leader of these Dess, as your infinite wisdom has gleaned. Please, let us revel in your greatness, oh powerful Taako!” 

That was more than enough for Taako. He started pointing out out the rest of the crew, one by one. 

“Well, the one who almost cooked the angry one there is my kick-ass sister Lup. She’s awesome and you should totally worship her and shit. Beefy O’Burly over there is Magnus. He’s in charge of physical ass-kicking and could prolly throw one of you about a thousand miles, so stay off his bad side too. The one with the glowing book is Mr. Merle Highchurch. He wants to tell you all about his god, Dan. So listen to him I guess. The mustachioed fellow is Davenport, our captain. He flies this beautiful baby through everything. And the nerdy looking one…” 

He paused while looking at Barry. It wasn’t that he didn’t have anything good to say, it was just that he couldn’t find anything worth worshiping. Eventually, he decided to go for another joke. 

“The nerdy-looking one may not look all that scary, but he’s the most dangerous of us all. Better watch out for him. That right there is Barold J. Bluejeans, the Terror.” 

With his brand of witnessing complete, Taako turned on his fabulous heel and walked back up into the ship. Barry, whose face had turned a shade of red almost as bright as his robe, quickly followed. Davenport furrowed his brow and muttered, almost under his breath.

“Team meeting in five. Be there.”

Then he too marched up back into the belly of the Starblaster, leaving Merle, Lup, and Magnus to deal with the fallout. Merle, being himself, got right down to business. 

“Well, good Dell people! We must go speak with our own leader, but I will soon return to you with more words from Pan, a god who I have faith you will all come to love as much as I do!” 

He began to waddle back up the gangplank, and Lup followed in her elegant stride. Magnus stood alone before the assembled Dell, who all still knelt in the dust before him. Their leader, who had averted his eyes, spoke. 

“Oh, powerful Magnus. Before you too take your leave of us, please. What is the name of the seventh of your glorious pantheon? We see her observing us, but she has not spoken a word. What mystic powers does she possess? We wish to show proper homage to all of you!” 

Magnus was not at all prepared for this. He was a tactical officer, trained in combat and protection. He was supposed to keep the crew safe, not deal with the being suddenly worshiped by a strange population. His thoughts were elsewhere and were mostly on the subject of how incredibly out of his depth he was. So he answered simply and truthfully, as he was apt to do.

“That’s Lucretia. She’s our chronicler.”

Then he, too, re-entered the ship.

***

They stayed with this particular group of Dell because every other group was identical. They tried to leave, but they got the same reaction each time. So eventually, they returned. It didn’t matter. Their influence spread across the world like a wildfire. And that influence took the form of worship. Worship of them. They were worshipped as gods. Not the same way Merle worshiped his god, in a loving way, but in an entirely different way. The Dell reveled in the mere idea that anything could be different from the life they had been born into. They were gods because what else could they be? They were tangible representations of wonder. 

Without meaning to, each of them had churches established around them. The ideals of these organizations varied wildly, from Lucretia’s borderline cult to Barry’s university. Their followings didn’t stem from their personalities, but from what the Dell thought they would like. It was often very wrong. But not always. 

Taako took to the god’s life like a duck to water. Within the first month, he had started putting on dazzling displays of conjuration and transmutation. He actively encouraged people to follow him, as long as they did it right. One could easily pick out a Takkette by the purple hats they were required to wear at all times. He was Taako, God of glamor, magic, and creation. And he was loving it.

Lup didn’t disdain to be a goddess. Her following was lead by Grung, the aggressive idiot who had tried to attack them on their first day on the world. His reprimand by her fire had left him awestruck, and he threw himself completely into devotion to her. Lup’s followers would spend their days gathering anything they could find that would burn, and their nights gathered around great bonfires that, from the sky, could be seen dotting the surface of the planet. It was her followers that called themselves Torches. They followed in her footsteps when it came to fire. It was not a force to be feared. It was as beautiful as their goddess, and it should be marveled at. But it should also be respected. As should she. 

Davenport’s following was small. They called themselves Portlings, and their only goal was to fly as surely as the man they worshipped. The Dell grew no facial hair, but they would draw mustaches on themselves with charcoal to try and emulate their god. They didn’t have the technology to take to the air as they wanted to, but they did what they could. They climbed to roofs and the smokestacks of the great factories, where they could look out on the world from on high. Anf that was the only requirement of their worship. 

Magnus wasn’t too excited about being a god in the beginning. He was always the protector, keeping others safe. He wanted to be in the action, and from his experience, gods usually stuck to the sidelines. It didn’t take long, however, for him to realize that he could be whatever kind of god he wanted. So he embraced it. He realized that if he could teach others to protect, then it could be like he was everywhere at once. If his followers could keep others safe, what did it matter who was doing it? As long as people were protected. And so, every day, he would go out into the town and teach. He taught the Dell in the use of blade and bow, and how to use shields to protect others and not just oneself. His followers were called Blades, and they were called upon during disasters to keep people safe in times of need. Magnus was proud of what he had done in this world, for once. Maybe they would be just a little bit safer after he was gone. 

The reason Magnus was so sure that they would still be there after he left was because of Barry’s followers. He was the only one who kept his eyes on the original mission. As soon as he convinced at least some of the Dell that he wasn’t some great and terrible god of destruction, he got them to work trying to find the Light of Creation. He felt bad doing it at first. He felt like he was manipulating them into doing his bidding until Lup showed him another way of thinking about it.

“Think about it Barold. Before we got here, they had nothing. All they knew was their drab existence. They didn’t laugh, smile, or even have a word for joy. All they knew was work. But now we can give them that. We can give them purpose. They just want to help us. That’s all they want to do. Why not give them what they want? And remember what Capn’Port said? If they help us find the Light, then they survive when the Hunger comes. Helping us helps them.” 

She made a good point. And so, he did his best to embrace his role as Barry Bluejeans, the god. Quickly, he seized control of one of the factories. There was no management or anyone in charge. So he just walked in, and those who wished to bask in his glory followed. 

Back on the homeworld, he had been a professor. So having an audience to listen to him was something that he was used to. With the help of his following, it was relatively easy to convert the factory into a functional presentation hall. It was there that he gave his speeches. Each day he gave a new seminar to an audience that loved him. He started just telling them what they needed to know. What the Light was, what it could do, what it looked like. But as the search continued, the Dell still wanted to learn from their god. And so he taught. Planar theory. Arcane interactions. The things that had brought them to where they were now. He became Dr. Bluejeans, God of knowledge and learning, and his followers were simply his students.

A few months in, they found the Light. A squadron of Dell stormed in during a lecture on some of Barry’s own theories on the nature of bonds and their power. This squad had their own Dessan, who held the light over his head like a torch. At first, Barry had been worried that the Light’s thrall would overwhelm them, but their fervent belief in him proved strong enough to hold them together. Before he went down to congratulate them, he glanced behind himself at the blackboard covered in the equations about the powers of Bonds. He would have to rethink some of his theories...

Lucretia’s following was the only one that ever caused any actual issues. She barely ever left the ship that year, because there was nothing really to document. She attended a few of Barry’s seminars, but those were the extent of her excursions for the year. But that didn’t stop them from worshiping her. Lucretia was only ever seen in the crows’ nest of the Starblaster, writing. And so they worshiped that part of her. They emulated the part of her that they saw, which was the quiet observation part. So they would watch. And take notes. Always. 

They became adept at moving in her silent ways. They mastered her art of meticulous note-taking. Without her knowing or wanting it, her following become her eyes and ears in the world. Some of them mustered up the bravery to sneak onto the Starblaster and leave their notes on the tables. Occasionally, they would find neatly stacked paged full of small, cramped writing, detailing the lives of the Dell around them. It was haunting and terrifying, but honestly a little impressive. Magnus and Davenport were furious, but they couldn’t catch the culprit, or possibly culprits? Magnus tried to have his Blades do something about it, but when he asked about Lucretia’s followers, the only thing they knew was that they were called Scribes. 

Merle had the hardest time. He wanted so badly to get the Dell to worship Pan, but they just weren’t having any of it. The Dessan of the small group they first met immediately gravitated towards him and offered up the building he lived in to be Merle’s church. Merle was reluctant, but he knew he had to set up base somewhere, and the Dessan’s home was as good a place as any. 

When he first tried to introduce them to the concept of Pan, they thought that he was another member of the crew. They asked why they hadn’t seen him yet, and why he didn’t come out with the rest to greet them. When Merle told them that Pan didn’t live with them on the Starblaster, they immediately lost interest. From their point of view, why would they worship a conceptual entity when they had seven perfectly good tangible ones that walked among them each and every day? It didn’t help that Pan was an embodiment of something that they had never even heard of before the IPRE came. It was saddening to hear for Merle. That these people who so desperately needed Pan’s light so adamantly denied it. 

***

“It just feels so wrong. We aren’t gods. We’re putting ourselves the position no mortal should ever be in. If we could speak to the gods, what would they say? I can’t think they would be proud of us. Would they scorn us? I can’t help thinking that if the gods of this system were more active, we would have been stuck down, time and time again by now. I just don’t like it is all.” 

They were having another meeting in the dining hall on board the Starblaster. Davenport had made weekly check-ins mandatory after Taako, Lup and Barry had stated taking a more permanent residence at their places of worship. Merle was voicing his discomfort yet again, but they all knew there was nothing they could do about it. The Dell didn’t believe in anything they couldn’t see. It was as simple as that. 

“Well, to be fair Merle, we aren’t mortal anymore. We can’t die just as surely as the gods. And, based on what Barold here has told me about planer theory, the other planes can’t survive without the prime material. So once the Hunger eats a world, the gods die right along with everyone else. So, if we save this world, we are also saving their  _ actual  _ gods.” 

And again, Lup’s was the voice of reason. The issue was tabled, for now. Barry cleared his throat. 

“Well, my… students? I guess. Yeah. Students. My students and I have been working with the Light and have found out some interesting stuff. Mainly, we’ve found out that it isn’t made of any sort of material that exists. Like, at all. It doesn’t show up on any readings, which first off, is infuriating. Like, it obviously gives off visible light, but that’s it. There’s that and… something else. One other thing. There’s a very tangible feeling emanating from it. A need. A want to be… wanted.”

Magnus nodded sagely, like he understood completely. 

“The craveablity.” 

Barry looked at him strangely, like he wanted to argue, but then decided against it. 

“Yeah. Sure. The craveablity. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever worked with. But that’s all I’ve got for now.” 

Barry considered mentioning his new theories on how bonds might be interacting with the Light’s power, but he decided to wait until they were more concrete. There’s nothing worse than getting drawn into a conversation about something that may or may not even be relevant. Besides, he wasn’t nearly the most qualified of the crew to be theorizing in that department. Davenport had basically built the bond engine with his own hands. If anyone knew what was going on with bonds, it would be him. Barry made a mental note to ask the captain about that later. 

***

There are things that bonds are capable of. But in order to understand those things, you first need to really understand what a bond is. And there is one person who understands that better than anyone else. His story is a complicated one, so it’s best to start at the beginning. The beginning of the life of a man named John. 

John was a human child, born to human parents. At the moment of his birth, there was no dimming of the sun, no dying of crops. There was no foretelling of what he would grow to become. His world was a normal one, and as far as anyone knew, would stay that way. One sun hung in a blue sky, and birds, trees, and people lived calm if unenlightened lives. They were content, if not happy. And why wouldn’t they be? They had what they needed, if not what they wanted. They didn’t complain, but they didn’t laugh much either. They simply… were. And it was fine.

It was fine for everyone except for John. He, out of everyone, saw through the haze of mediocrity. He didn’t know why it was him, but it was. At first, he was depressed by the way people in his world lived their lives. They had joy, anger, feeling, but it was muted, dull. It was terrible. 

And he didn’t understand why he was the only one who saw through the veil.


	5. Barry - Year Five - A Single Spark

Barry always regenerated looking over the side of the ship, into the new planar system. When they had first been torn apart and sewn back together, he had been watching his homeworld being attacked by a force he knew nothing about. Now, as they entered cycle number five, he got to see his favorite sight in all of existence. The planar system laid out in all its beautiful symmetry. The four elemental planes are interwoven with the planes of light and shadow, encircled by the planes of thought and magic, which in turn where interwoven with the celestial and astral planes, all of which orbited the Prime Material Plane. And his favorite, the ethereal plane. It was only just there, and you could only make it out if you squinted just right and knew what you were looking for. It was magnificent, and he was so lucky that he was one of the few who got to see it regularly. 

That year, he stayed a few extra minutes basking in its glory, just taking it all in. He knew that he would have to go and meet up with the rest of the crew soon enough for their customary post-regeneration catch-up meeting, but he could spare a few minutes just appreciating the beauty of the thing he had spent his entire life researching. Well, his entire life pre whatever this was. Or maybe not? He was still studying it, he supposed. He laughed to himself. Based on what he could tell, they were now woven into the very fabric of existence itself, so not only did he know the most about the planar system, he literally was the planar system. That was weird to think about. 

Lup tapped him on the shoulder, shattering his wandering stream of consciousness. She had a way of doing that. Her mere presence could do that to a person, just shock them into paying attention to her. 

“Hey, nerd. Meeting in the dining room, like usual. You coming, or are you too busy trying to figure out how to make out with all of reality?” 

As usual, her words were just the right combination of dissing and joking to throw him off balance. He could never find the words he wanted to respond to her, so usually, he didn’t. He would just smile and nod as he did now. Then he accompanied her to the room where the rest of the group was waiting. 

Their escape last year had been about as uneventful as it could have been. They knew when the Hunger was coming and had been prepared. They had all gone out to their respective groups and told them goodbye. They had told them what was coming, and how to best protect themselves. Even Lucretia finally left the safety of the Starblaster, and within moments of leaving had found herself surrounded by black-clad Dell, weeping in joy at seeing their goddess up close for the first time. She didn’t say a word but simply gave them a letter before returning. As they left, they saw Magnus’ Blades taking formation around Barry’s conference hall, which had been converted into a makeshift fortress. They saw the hordes of darkness approaching, but for once, they believed that they had left the world with a fighting chance. They knew that the world they exited was better off than when they entered. 

  
  


When Lup and Barry got into the dining room, Magnus and Merle were reenacting their fight against the Hunger back on the planet with seasons that changed every day. Magnus had wisely opted to pantomime instead of actually using his ax, but Merle was actually casting spells left and right like spell slots were as temporary as their deaths were. 

“And then I was all like ‘Die you fiends!’ and totally cut this one dude in half! It was so cool!” 

“And I cast  _ Bear’s Strength  _ on him so he could do it without even breaking a sweat! I guess we’re just awesome that way.” 

The Davenport and Taako were clearly only listening because there was nothing else to do, but Lucretia actually seemed to be engrossed in their story. She was writing frantically in one of her journals and had two of them open at once, glancing back and forth, comparing what was written in one with the other. It was a strange sight for Lup and Barry, to be sure, but it was one that they were happy to be greeted with. As they entered, Taako spoke.

“Finally, the lovebirds arrive. Capn’Port, you wanna get this meeting down to business?” 

Lup rolled her eyes and took her customary seat next to Taako, but Barry felt his face turning red. It had been five years, and still, he wasn’t used to the twins near constant teasing. He really needed to work on that. 

“Yeah. Last year was strange, as we all know. But this year could be anything, and we need to remember that. Just approach this new world with new eyes. Remember, mission number one is still getting the Light. I’ll do a sweep over the surface of the plane to try and get a feel for how it works, and then we can reassess the situation. But until then, it’s mission as usual. Everyone got that?”

Everyone nodded and began to file out of the room. Soon, only Barry, Taako, and Lup were left. Taako got up, stretched, and began to walk out, before making eye contact with Barry and winking dramatically. Barry again felt the heat rise to his face but was determined to not let Taako’s teasing get to him. He turned to Lup and started to tell her something that he realized in the last year. 

“So, your job originally was the arcane scientific right? You and Taako? Obviously, you can do so much more, you’re amazing and talented in so many ways, but that is what you were hired on for, right?” 

_ Shit _ **.** What was he doing? He was letting Taako’s taunting get him distracted. 

“Yeah? What are you getting at Bear?” 

Poor Barry. He was so easily taunted, it was hard to not make him flustered. What Taako had been doing was a little rude though. She didn’t think that there was anything actually behind his reaction to being around her other than his normal ineptitude with social interaction, but Taako definitely did. It was absurd. She was a badass and they both knew it. Everyone was knocked flat around her, so it only made sense for someone like Barry to be completely shell-shocked. Taako was just being an asshole. 

“Well, I was thinking that... once we got down planetside… we could put our heads together and figure some stuff out?” 

What was he  _ saying?  _ Put our heads together? Nobody talks like that. Whatever. He needed to just get through this interaction and get back to work. This was a disaster, and the sooner it was over, the better. 

“Hell yeah Barold. I think I get what you’re saying. Science and magic, working hand in hand. Together we could at least get the work done twice as fast. I like the way you're thinking. We can go collect some samples together once Capn’Port lands the ship.”

It was a simple request with a simple answer, but they both left the interaction with far more energy than they had started it. For Lup, she left the dining room and entered hers and Taako’s bedroom with more of a spring in her step than usual. For Barry, he could barely keep his thoughts in line as he tried to plan what exactly they were going to need to collect on their outing. And neither of them could accurately pinpoint why that was…

*** 

“Well, Taako is going to be excited at least.” 

Merle and Magnus were looking down over the world that would be their home for the year. Once again, they had come down at night, but this time the surface of the world was anything but dark. Bright lights wrapped over the planet like a great glowing spiderweb, a sign that could only mean civilization. At semi-regular points along the lines were much bigger points of light that could only be cities. They heard the tell-tale padding of Barry’s heavy footsteps and waited for him to join them looking over the rail. 

“I wonder what’s making those lights. Like, it doesn’t seem to be magical, but I’m not sure what it could be. I’m excited to find out what.”

“Barry, you’re such a fuckin’ nerd. We see a new planet covered in light and all you can think about is ‘ooh I wonder what makes it.’ Love you man.” 

Magnus punched him lightly in the arm, and Barry laughed. Normally, he would be intimidated by someone as strong and physically adept as Magnus, but it was impossible to be scared of the big guy. He was just so full of love. He has seen the way he had taught the Dell to protect themselves without any prompting. He had seen the way he had sacrificed himself for when the Hunger first arrived on the animal planet, without even knowing he would come back. He admired Magnus and was honored to be on a crew with him. He felt that way with most of the crew. Lucretia was the most accomplished writer he had ever even heard of, let alone met. Davenport was an amazing pilot, and most people didn’t even realize how smart he was in addition to that. Merle could bring joy and light to any situation, both literally and metaphorically, just through his belief that things would be okay, that they should be okay. Taako was easily the most powerful wizard he had ever been graced with witnessing in action. Well, the second most powerful. Lup. Lup was just… She was amazing in so many ways. 

“It really is fascinating. I see where you're coming from Barry. I already have pages and pages written, and we’ve only been here a few days.” 

“Fantasy Jesus Christ ‘Chreesh!” 

Merle had almost fallen off of his step stool. He had advocated for it the first time they had been given a tour of the ship, and one had been provided. The only downside was that it gave him further to fall when he was startled by Lucretia’s near-silent approaches. Magnus and Barry laughed at Merle’s surprise, but soon the four of them lapsed into silence, just taking in the majesty of the glowing world below them. Magnus, Barry, Merle, and Lucretia, just having a moment. It was a good one. 

*** 

It didn’t take long for them to realize that the glowing lines all culminated in one spot. One massive glowing circle, from which emanated hundreds of thick shining bands, which in turn split into hundreds of smaller ones, and so on. It all originated there. 

“You realize how much this looks like a spider’s web right? Like I actually don’t know how more clearly it could be screaming ‘TRAP’.” 

“You know, Capn’, that’s a fair point. There’s just one thing. My beautiful sister and her hardworking assistant figured something out yesterday. LuLu, care to break the bad news to our fearless leader?”

Lup sighed. They had seen the light fall pretty near them a few days after landing, and tracking its descent hadn’t been hard. 

“First off, Barry and I are coworkers, as are all of us. Nobody is anyone else’s assistant. But, Captain, unfortunately, he’s right. There is some bad news. Barry and I triangulated the Light’s position, and well… It’s right smack in the middle of that big ol’ city, and by extension, right in the middle of the web.” 

Her proclamation was followed by silence. Obviously, nobody wanted to fly the ship right into what Davenport had pointed out could so clearly be a trap, but they needed the light. Magnus eventually put out an idea.

“Well, I for one am not a huge fan of spiders, so I vote not flying right into the center of the web if that is what it is. We still don’t even know it is a web, just that it looks like one. But my suggestion is pretty simple. Just.. don’t go there right away? Like, put down in one of the smaller cities, and figure out what is going on first. Then if it’s just weird lights, we can go look for  _ the  _ Light. That sounds good, right?” 

It was a good idea as any. So they picked a smaller city randomly and brought the Starblaster down a few miles away from the core of the light. Like they had done on the crystal world, they decided to wait until morning before going in. And so they all went to their respective rooms to sleep the night away. 

***

“We call it Och. It powers everything in our entire world. And we owe the discovery of it’s power to the Overmancer. He lives in Araina, the heart of our world. If you’re searching for anything, that’s where you’ll want to go.” 

They had found the entire world was mostly populated by what we’re basically gnomes. They looked like gnomes, acted like gnomes, and even spoke a language that was similar to gnomish. The only discernable difference was that their skin was a bright electric blue. Whatever pigment caused this startling difference also made them perfectly suited to working with their Och. It conducted the force through their skin with nearly no resistance but didn’t harm them in the slightest. 

“Och works almost exactly like electricity back on the homeworld. Even their lighting is made of the stuff. The only difference I can tell is that it responds to these people’s whims almost in the same way magic does to an accomplished wizard, but they have no training at all. It’s like their electricity wants to be controlled. Weird, right?” 

Barry’s quick recap through the stone was met with the sound of scribbles on paper. Davenport was trying to find a better place to park the ship after they realized the inhabitants of the cities weren’t inherently hostile and they didn’t need to be prepared to flee at any moment. Lup, Magnus, and Taako were with him Barry in the city, getting the tour from a fellow named Gedas who had greeted them almost as soon as they entered. He was a nice enough guy if a little overenthusiastic about the history of the world. Merle was taking a nap in his room, so only Lucretia was available to respond to Barry’s check-ins. And she did so in her customary way of taking notes. 

The city they had randomly landed in was called Ken, and it was full of sights to behold. The streets were all covered in enormous mesh nets that served as scaffolding to hold spheres of bronze that housed constantly sparking balls of Och. They soon realized that these were what they had seen during their flyover lighting up the whole planet. Nearly the entire day was spent following around their self-appointed tour guide, and there wasn’t a single dull moment. And all of the amazing sights somehow involved the power of Och. It was ingrained into every aspect of these people’s lives in a beautiful synergy. 

In the streets, there were children playing games with orbs made of crackling lightning, tossing them back and forth without a care in the world. There were people making repairs to the vast overhead lighting systems, welding steel bars with arcs of electricity from their bare hands. They even saw an older man putting on a fireworks show in the middle of a plaza for anyone who cared to watch. A small crowd had gathered to see multicolored flashes arc out from his outstretched hands into the air, connecting to the scaffolding and arcing around the square. The entire day, their ears were filled with the sounds of laughter, and joy. 

Lup was thrilled. True, her specialization was fire, but she was an evocation adept at heart. And evocation focused on all forms of power, be that fire, wind, force or, in this case, lightning. 

“You know, I could spend this year really focusing on that sweet sweet lightning magic. I’ve found that enough fire usually gets the job done, but it can’t hurt to be prepared!” 

“LuLu, you’ve got a point there. The only thing I’m seeing is that I don’t think this stuff is traditional lighting. It just feels different. If you were anyone but my badass evocation master sister, I would warn you against playing with fire. But I’ll bet you’ll be okay. Have at thee!” 

With her brother’s (completely unnecessary) permission, Lup took off into the crowd to get a closer look at the electromancer’s show. Magnus took off with her, just as excited to get right up in the action. Barry and Taako stayed back, content to watch the forces of nature as handled by a man from afar. 

“You know, we don’t actually know anything about this Och stuff. It might react super negatively with our biology. Or it could even be semi-sentient from all we can tell, and try and attack us. Maybe we should be a little more careful?” 

Taako sighed and took out his hairbrush. Today it was a brass-bronze alloy that he claimed was specifically transmuted to be magically conductive. So far, Barry hadn’t seen any proof of this, but he had no reason to doubt it. It was a nice color, and it complemented Taako’s blonde hair quite nicely. He looked at him as he took out his braid and started to comb out his hair to its full length. 

“Honestly, probably. But truth be told, she was going to do it anyway. And I figured it was better if Maggie went with her and they went in with a positive outlook. Worst case scenario, they fuck shit up and we dip the hell out. We did pretty well back with the rock dudes. I’ve got faith in her. You should learn to have some as well. In all of us.” 

Then he turned away from Barry as a bright red arc of lightning shot straight up into the air and spit apart into seven different smaller bolts of differencing shades of red, which in turn exploded into fireworks of oranges and yellows. There were squeals of delight from the crowd, and they could clearly pick out Lup’s high-pitched laugh, along with Magnus’s full-bodied bellowing guffaw. Barry could see the reflection of the lights in Taako’s eyes. 

“I mean that. All of us. We’re a team Barold. So that means having a little faith in yourself too.”

***

They only stayed in Ken for about a week. They just needed to get a better understanding of who this Overmancer was, and how to get to him. From what they heard, he was the de-facto ruler of this world, and something as powerful as the Light would definitely be brought to him. Taako, as the social expert, was in charge of getting as much information out of the population as possible. He, Magnus, and Davenport were the ones who were going to be doing that, while the others focused their efforts on understanding Och, in case it somehow came up in their interactions with the mysterious Overmancer. 

They had parked the ship in an open area outside of the city that was entirely made of just dead rock. They had been gifted with numerous glass bottles full of Och. You would feel a tingling sensation when holding them, and you could see the lightning crackling when you looked inside. Lup, Barry and, Merle would spend their days outside of the ship, opening the bottles and trying to control the results. Lucretia would stay up in the crow’s nest and watch, writing down every success and every mishap. 

Lup was obviously the best at controlling it, seeing as she had considerable practice harnessing the elements already. Och was had slight changes in its makeup from their lightning at home, but the subtle differences just made it keener to be controlled by someone as talented as Lup. Within the first week of their experimentation, she was playing games with it as easily as the children in the cities. She was a natural. 

Merle had some difficulties in the beginning, but eventually got the hang of it. He tried to mimic Lup’s style of control, which involved a lot of complex incantations and somatic spellcasting. It was instantly evident that he was just not cut out for that kind of thing. His thick fingers just weren’t dexterous enough and he stumbled over the smooth elven words of the spells. More than once, the energy would recoil back at him instead of outward, leaving him with a nasty shock. Barry was concerned for his friend’s safety, but Lup would always laugh and laugh as Merle had to heal yet another of his own burns. 

Eventually, he realized there was another way. He started to think about the lighting not as pure energy, but as something alive. It wasn’t a far stretch. It moved like something alive, going from one thing to another as it fancied. It was born, it ate, and it died. So Merle began to love the lighting, as he loved everything else. And it responded to him. He didn’t command it as Lup did. He would ask it to come out and play, and it would. Soon, Lucretia’s journals were full of sketches of Lup blasting arcs of lighting at cliffsides, and Merle playing with orbs of electricity like one would play with an overenthusiastic puppy. 

Barry had never studied any form of magic in the way the other two had. Sure, he knew a thing or two about the concepts behind how and why they worked, but he had never cast a spell in his life. He might have been a miner, who knew every intricacy of metallurgy and how the blade was crafted, but Lup and Merle were the soldiers who took that blade into battle and put it to use. Within days of working with Och, his hands were covered with scars from electric burns. But Barry wasn’t one to give up easily. So he stuck with it, learning what he could. But even he had his limits. 

One night a few weeks in, Lucretia just couldn’t get to sleep. This wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, so she knew exactly what she was going to do. She was going to get her sketchbook and climb up into the crow’s nest. She would stay there until the sun rose, and do her best to commit the amazing sight to paper. But on her way from her room to the deck, she had to walk past the door to the lab. And even this early in the morning, hours before the sun would even think about showing its face, she could hear the whir of a drill and hum of electricity coming from within as she passed. 

Normally, Lucretia was content to stay on the sidelines. But there was a side of her that she had hidden away, that she hadn’t endulged in years. Lucretia was always an adventurous girl, but the phrase “curiousity killed the cat” had played into her life more than most. But tonight, she thought that a little curiosity couldn’t hurt too bad. So, she eased open to the door of the lab. 

The sight that greeted her was one that, under different circumstances, wouldn’t be all that strange. Barry was bent over a desk, an array of power tools displayed before him. There were drills, saws, bolt cutters, and many other industrial tools. He was holding a foot and a half long, slender metal rod in one hand, and a blowtorch in the other. Over his face, we wore a welding mask emblazoned with purple and blue flames that matched the ones the sprung forth from the torch he grasped so firmly. He was so engrossed in his work that he didn’t even notice when Lucretia entered. And so she waited with a patience she had honed over years of working with people like him. People whose work could overtake them so completely that nothing else in the world existed. People who she admired.

Eventually, the flames subsided, and he flipped up his facemask. She watched as he admired his handiwork. She couldn’t tell exactly what it was or what it was supposed to do, but it looked very scientific. It looked a little bit like a wand, but crafted out of metal, unlike Takko’s and Lup’s. Its base shape was long and slender like a wand, but that was where the similarities ended. Around its body, rings of different metals floated and spun, orbiting the core like planets orbiting a star. The largest of these rings was a metal that Lucretia actually recognized. It was an alloy that she recalled hearing Taako brag about transmuting into existance, just to make his hairbrush fit in with their new reality. An alloy that was apparently incredibly conductive… 

It was then she noticed the glass bottle on the table. It was full of blue light, that when she looked closer, she could tell was coming from a spinning orb of lightning. It was one of the bottles of Och that they had been gifted form the city. As she observed from the doorway, she watched Barry open the bottle, and saw the Och shoot out of its neck. 

It began to dart around the room, ricocheting off anything metallic to anything else remotely conductive. Barry sat in the middle of this, intently tracking the light’s progress with his eyes, his body completely frozen. Slowly, he raised the strange wand into the air, and the rings around it began to spin faster. Between them and the core, small sparks of static began to form. Still, Barry kept his attention locked on the Och blasting around his lab. Then, in a burst of motion, he lept out of his chair and thrust the wand outward. And the chaotic scene in the room came to a standstill. 

The energetic spark that a second ago was causing such a ruckus hovered, still, at the tip of the wand. Then, it elongated, and retreated into the tip. And all was dark in the Lab, aside from the few lights that Barry had been working by. And he laughed. He waved the wand, and the Och shot out, and encircled one of the rings, making it spin at incredible speeds. He laughed again. He started waving the wand this way and that, playing with his new creation, testing out its capabilities. His face was full of joy, of childlike wonder. He spun in his chair, laughing. Then his eyes met Lucretia’s, still halfway into the room. 

He immediately lowered the wand. He stopped spinning, and his face turned red. He pushed his glasses up his face and started cleaning up his workspace.

“Oh. Sorry ‘Creesh. I didn’t see you there. Did you need something?” 

Then he looked up at the clock on the wall, and his eyes went wide. 

“Oh, gods. I didn’t wake you up, did I? I’m such an idiot. I’m so sorry Lucretia. I should have kept it down. I didn’t realize it was so late. Or early, I guess? Oh damn. Shit. I’m sorry… I should…”

  
  


This was the nightmare scenario. He had gotten lost in his work and woken up one of the crew, and now she had seen him playing with toys at three A.M like a child. Why was he such a fool? 

  
  


“No, Barry, It’s okay. I couldn’t sleep anyway. Not that you were being loud. I just felt like getting some art of the sunrise down. Though I guess that isn’t for hours… No, it isn’t your fault. I was just on my way to the deck and saw that the lights were on in here. I thought I would check in on you. Seems like you were doing some cool stuff. What is that thing?” 

  
  


Barry relaxed. Being around Lup and Taako was nerve-wracking for him, with them being so smooth and socially adept, but Lucretia was different. She was more like him, he thought. She had clearly spent most of her adult life around books and authors, the same way he had spent his around microscopes and lectures. Talking to her felt more natural. He could feel that she was being genuine. And his creation was a topic he was more than willing to talk about. 

“Well, it doesn’t really have a name. But you can tell I haven’t really been having much luck working with Och, right? I mean, Lup wields it as easily as you do a pen, and Merle basically talks to the stuff. I kina just get shocked a lot. So I got to thinking. What if I could control it the same way we controlled lightning at home? But Och isn’t exactly lightning. It’s basically magic lightning, at the core. So what do you need to control magic lightning?” 

  
  


With that, he reached over to the table and grabbed the wand with one deft sweep. He held it up, and a bolt of energy arced out from it, and then ricocheted back. Then he turned to Lucretia, a big smile on his face. The kind of smile that lit up his entire face with joy and wonder. The kind of smile that screamed ‘I just had an amazing idea!’ 

  
  


“Well, obviously, a magic lightning rod! And that’s exactly what this is! I based it off of Lup’s wand and used a series of conductive compounds to make it attract electricity as much as possible. It works much better than I could have dreamed! And this is just the prototype! I’m sure to have a better model by the time Taako, Mags, and Capn’Port get back.” 

  
  


They stayed there for the rest of the night. Barry gushing about ideas he had to make his invention better, along with just various theories he had about Och and the world itself. Lucretia contributed just enough to keep the conversation going, and they spent the remaining hours until Lup and Merle awoke in the Lab. Just appreciating each other. Appreciating each other’s minds. 

***

  
  


Taako, Davenport, and Magnus stayed in Ken for a few weeks, trying to get as much information about the Overmancer as they could. Unfortunately, he was an infuriatingly vague and mysterious figure whose story was so convoluted with myth and legend that sometimes it seemed that he might not exist at all. Some people seemed to worship him almost like a god, while others just saw him as nothing more than a highly skilled artificer. 

  
  


Eventually, they narrowed down the tall tales to a few reliable facts. He inhabited a large golden dome in Araina, the center of the world, that very few people were allowed to enter. And he was also apparently the best manipulator of Och on the entire planet. Finally, he was supposedly blind and wore a blindfold at all times, but that had no impact on his ability to interact with the world. But other than those things, all they had to work with was myth, legend, and fable.

  
  


But, on the other hand, they had worked with less before. They were at the beginning of a journey that nobody else could even imagine, let alone tell tales about. So, one night, the seven of them watched the city that had served as the backdrop for a minor adventure for a couple of months. As the ship rose up into the night, they couldn’t help but see the similarities of the sky full of stars, and the planet blanketed in lightning. And it was beautiful. 

  
  


Finding the shining central city wasn’t difficult. Quite literally, all roads lead to it. So it only took a couple of hours for Davenport to bring them down near it. He elected himself to stay back, and Lucretia and Merle also decided to sit this one out. So once again, the strike team made up of Lup, Magnus, Barry and, Taako would go into the city. While Lup and Barry had been honing their skills with the new element of Och, Magnus and Taako had spent their time learning about the people in the world. So together, they would make the perfect team to try and talk to the Overmancer and get their hands on the Light. 

  
  


The Starblaster landed in a lush green field a few miles away from Araina. They could still see the capital from where they landed, and it was a sight to behold. It was built upon the only elevated place within a hundred miles, a hill that rose steadily out of the greenery and smoothly transitioned into the stone made up the base of the city. There were innumerable great highways that fed into the city, all enclosed in the same illuminated cages that covered all of the structures they had encountered so far. The actual city was enclosed in a massive opaque dome made of gold, so from the Starblaster’s position, they couldn’t actually see inside. 

  
  


The dome itself was constantly covered in streams of Och, that flowed over its surface like rain sliding off the head of some great giant. It was constantly sparking with this lightning, which could easily be seen from miles away. The energy coming from this was so powerful, that the entire dome radiated a low, warm light. 

  
  


The four struck out from the ship on horseback. Magnus rode with Taako on a spectral bicorn named Garyl, who Taako loved summoning just for the shock factor. Magnus immediately fell in love and refused to ride any other creature. Lup, seeing this, was immediately seized by the need to one-up her brother, and summoned her own phantom steed, which took an entirely different form. Hers was a griffin with the head and wings of a phoenix named Jommothy who was constantly wreathed in illusory flames. 

Barry and Lup rode together astride Jommothy. Jommothy, being summoned by Lup, had little pieces of her personality, couldn’t help himself challenging Garyl to a race. Garyl, having just a touch of Taako in him, couldn’t find it within himself to refuse a challenge from what could be considered his sibling. So, despite Barry’s complaints, Jommothy and Garyl tore off towards the shining city on the hill, leaving trails of fire and phantom essence behind them. 

  
  


They found a small entrance to one of the superhighways, but it was small enough that the steeds couldn’t follow. So the four of them were forced to dismount and said goodbye to their respective fantastical rides. Then, they entered the cage that surrounded the road to the capital. 

Despite the fantastical technology they had seen throughout the world so far, there had been no signs of any effort to increase the speed of transport. The entire planet was blanketed with roads, but they were still used just as glorified walkways and paths. The ground along them was just steel and concrete, but there were enough people walking to the city that you couldn’t even see it. There was enough white noise from hundreds of overlapping conversations to make it the perfect place to make a plan of attack. 

  
  


“So, apparently his ‘place of residence’ isn’t exactly hard to miss. It should be in the center of the city, natch, and should be a giant gold dome, not unlike the one the entire damn city is shielded in. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wears a solid gold outfit as well. Dude loves his bling.” 

  
  


Once again, he was combing his hair. It seemed to be a fidget for him, just something for him to do while he talked. Today, it was weird yellow metal, shot through with blue. He was also curling it up with controlled gusts of wind, and by the time his statement was done, his normally loose wavy hair was curled tightly up around his head. 

“So finding him won’t be that hard. But what then?” 

Magnus hadn’t been able to get to sleep early enough, and because of that had missed breakfast. He was currently chowing down on a muffin Taako had whipped up and was spewing crumbs everywhere. He had learned that the people in this world weren’t big on manners, and was thrilled to take advantage of that. 

Barry was content to listen to the other’s plan. He was still getting the hang of the latest iteration of his ‘magic lightning rod,’ which he had just recently crafted into the form of gloves. He had quickly realized that he would stand out immensely if he was the only person on the entire planet who used a tool to control Och and tried to figure something out that was a little less obvious. 

The gloves worked, but the controls were far less intuitive. More than once in his practice with them, he had accidentally launched a lightning bolt when he had meant to turn on a light. Hairpin moves and turns were essential to their use, and it was important to be precise when messing around with the primal forces of nature. It was a good thing that he had spent years working with his hands, otherwise, he would more than likely have vaporized a few of the innocent bystanders by now. Or maybe not, since they all seemed to be immune to Och’s power anyway. Well, the crew wasn’t, and that would be even worse. Or maybe not, because the crew regenerated every year, and these people wouldn’t. But then again, if they didn’t get the light…

There he went, overthinking everything again. He really needed to stop doing that. It didn’t help anyone and wasn’t productive in any way. If he kept letting himself get dragged down that negative rabbit hole, then it might get more dramatic as time passed. And boy did they have a lot of time.

*** 

Like Magnus had assumed, finding the Overmancer wasn’t hard. He did in fact, live in a giant golden dome in the middle of the city. The city itself wasn’t all that different from Ken, just far bigger and more dramatic. The buildings were bigger, the lights were brighter, the sounds were louder, and most of all, the Och was even more prevalent here than it was before. In Araina, there were whole buildings made of the stuff and beings whose flesh was comprised of crackling electricity. And nobody thought that it was strange in the slightest, just the same way that nobody thought Och was strange in Ken. Once again, it was a sight to behold. 

The dome looked like a massive egg form afar. Shiny and gold, it’s surface was reflective as a mirror. As they approached, it became evident that there was only one entrance. A single road entered the half-dome through an archway made of Och, flanked by two behemoths almost comprised of flickering power. They immediately came to the conclusion that forcing entry was not going to be a possibility. 

Eventually, they were approached by a few official-looking fellows wearing badges. In Ken, most people hadn’t cared that they didn’t look like everyone else, but apparently, that didn’t fly here. When they were questioned, Barry made the decision to just tell the truth. Well, as much of the truth has was possible for a normal citizen to understand. He said that they were travelers from very far away, and they needed to speak to the Overmancer. 

They were taken to a different building, where they weren’t exactly imprisoned, but they weren’t exactly free either. They sat for hours in a white-walled room that was flooded with harsh blue light from a single Och lamp in the ceiling. They were provided with this world’s equivalent of donuts, which Taako loudly complained about. They were questioned many times, by many different people. 

Eventually, two of the beings made of pure Och entered. One was massive, at least twice the size of Magnus, and the other was smaller, roughly Barry’s size. Neither of them spoke, but it was made clear that the four IPRE members were to follow. And so they did. 

There was a second capability Barry had implemented in his gloves, that he was beginning to find useful in the city of Araina. The tech had started life as a pretty basic radiation counter that makes loud ticking sounds if brought near a source of radiation. After a few improvements, it would react to levels of Och in the area and display the reading in increments on the back of the gloves. The readings had been fluctuating wildly since they entered the city, but as they approached the dome, they started to increase rapidly and dramatically. He tried to signal Lup, but she was busy trying to strike up a conversation with the smaller guard. 

They were led down the street towards the center of the city. As they approached the dome, they began to feel palpable energy in the air. Not excitement, but there was a fair amount of that, but literally power. Taako’s carefully controlled curls were beginning to frizz up, and Barry’s gloves were beginning to overheat from all the stored power. He finally was able to signal Lup and discretely show her the power reading on the back of his hand. She was still pestering the guard, but he saw her eyes go wide. She didn’t say anything, but interlace her fingers with his when he reached out to her. 

  
  


They had practiced this specific maneuver repeatedly, just in case they were attacked by some Och-wielding wizard. If one of them was to take a significant shock, the other would be able to channel some of it into themselves. So, in order to keep the sensitive technology in his gloves from overloading from the ambient energy in the air, he released just a couple dozen watts into her palms, which she easily channeled away. 

There was one glitch in the plan that they hadn’t considered. They had practiced this specific maneuver with themselves and Merle. Lucretia had been watching, taking notes as usual. However, Taako, Davenport, and Magnus had been in Ken at the time. Consquently, from Taako’s point of view, he just saw Barry being anxious and worried, take his sister’s hand, and immediately calm down. He immediately snickered, but at a harsh look from the guards, he quieted down. But he quickly cast a  _ message  _ spell to Barry, a single sentence in his mind, with as much seriousness as he could muster.

“We will have  _ words  _ about this Barold”

***

“Tell me, travelers. If this Light of Creation, as you call it, is capable of so much, why should I give it to you?” 

The Overmancer lived up to every expectation and more. Inside the dome was completely hollow, with a single isthmus of steel running out about twenty yards into the open space. Och arced across the inside of the dome, bouncing from wall to wall and back again. But the most eye-catching part of the whole display was the Overmancer himself. 

He floated in the center of the room, no larger than any of the other people than they had seen. In fact, his actual appearance was nothing extraordinary at all. He looked just like any other person from this world. He did wear a white blindfold over his eyes, and he kept his head facing down. 

The supernatural feel came from the aura he exuded. Obviously, he was floating in the center of a massive dome, so that was dramatic. There were other obvious visible signs, like bolts of Och shooting off of him every few seconds, colliding with the walls and ricocheting around the room. What was strange about that was the silence that accompanied it. There were no thunderous booms that followed the bolts. In fact, the entire room was silent. Except for when he spoke.

There were other invisible signs of the Overmancer’s power. There was enough static energy radiating off of him that both Magnus’s beard and sideburns were sticking straight out from his face, and even the Twin’s long hair was floating slightly around their shoulders. 

As soon as they entered the dome, Barry had involuntarily cried out as his gloves kicked into overdrive from the sheer power in the building. They had a heat sink installed, but its capabilities were limited. The entire mechanism was beginning to overheat, and it was getting incredibly painful. The energy meter was flickering red, indicating a massive overload. Seeing this, Lup had immediately grabbed his hand and began siphoning as much of the Och into herself as she could. It was still nearly too much for either of them to bear, but they managed to hang on by hanging on to each other. 

The four of them stood on the shining isthmus, facing down the Overmancer. In his hands was the only thing about this situation that they even remotely understood, which was saying a lot, considering what it was. Clutched in the Overmancer’s hands was the Light of Creation, pulling at them just as it always had. They knew that their only hope was that this person, whoever he was, was as wise as the stories said. That he could resist the Light’s thrall and realize that giving it up to save his world was the right choice. 

The Overmancer’s voice didn’t boom with the voice of a thousand thunderstorms. It didn’t shake them to their core, and it defiantly didn’t fill them with reverence. It was actually quite familiar. It was the voice of a man who had been saddled with a duty that once had been a great honor, but as time had sludged on, had become his greatest burden. It was a voice all too familiar because they heard it every day coming from their stalwart captain, Davenport. 

“You realize that with this Light, I could re-make my world’s technology? We could take to the stars, and expand beyond this fragile world? The power this could gift, and the good I could do with it? Do you realize what you are asking to take form me and my people? So I ask you again, why I should give this to you.” 

“Well frankly, your Sparkyness, if you don’t, in about four months, you and everything you’ve ever known will be devoured. No joke bud. Game over for you, your city here, and the entire planet, and unfortunately, all those beautiful stars beyond. No fighting, no running. Donezo.” 

There was silence for a few moments as the Overmancer thought about what Taako had just said. Barry began to speak, to try and re-frame the situation in a better, more politically pleasing way, but was cut off. 

“I feel that you aren’t lying to me. At least not intentionally. But that specific caveat has burned me before. So, I propose a deal. Is your party open to negotiation?” 

As one, the twins responded. 

“Hell yeah, my dude!” 

The Overmancer didn’t seem fazed at all by their irreverence. He just continued speaking, opening terms of negotiation. 

“How about this. I will give you the light for… four months, you said? Then, if this apocalypse does not come to pass, or if it does and we all survive, you return to me with the Light and teach me what you know of it, in return for the time you get now. What say you, travelers?” 

They glanced at each other. Barry was doing mental calculations to figure out the exact actual time they had before the Hunger came. They had been traveling together long enough that they could read each other pretty well, and the primary issue was clear. The deal sounded good, but if they had the Light when the Hunger came and prevented the end times, then they would leave and be unable to return it. Taako’s face clearly showed what he wanted to do. He just wanted to lie and say they would bring it back, but then a significant raise of an eyebrow and nod of Magnus’s head reminded him of the Overmancer’s seeming ability to tell truth from lie. So Lup took charge. 

“Well, Mr. Overmancer Sr., we need the Light to stop the apocalypse. And once we use it, we’re going to go, and it’s going to come with us. Returning it isn’t going to be a possibility. But we would be more than willing to stay with you until we need to go and save your world and do what we can in tandem with you, working with the Light. We just need it at the end of the..” 

Barry tugged on her hand. They hadn’t let go since entering the dome, to keep Barry from combusting. She turned, and he mouthed the words

“Five. Five months.” 

She smiled. Five years, plus about a year of training on the homeworld, and they were already working and thinking in sync. Incredible. 

“At the end of the five-month period. So, for five months, we will work with you, and show you everything we know about the Light of Creation. Then, we will take it, save your planet and reality, and leave you to it. How does that sound?” 

The Overmancer floated in silence fora moment again. The static charge in the room increased enough that the overload from Barry’s gloves got so bad that Lup had to release some in a bolt of her own, into the wall. Her’s was followed by the boom of thunder, which startled Magnus enough that he jumped. The sound echoed around the chamber for nearly a half a minute, and when it finished, the Overmancer spoke. 

“I accept” 

*** 

For five months, Lup and Barry worked closely with the Overmancer. They spent their days in that room, their hair standing on end by the static charge. For the first few days, Barry continued to wear his gloves. He didn’t want to upset the Overmancer by revealing that he couldn’t naturally manipulate Och, but after accidentally letting it slip when asked about his inventions, he was told that there were actually many natives of the world that weren’t blessed with the gift. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done for them. Soon, that became the main focus of their studies. 

They cracked it eventually. Using the light, they were able to infuse the tech of Barry’s magic lightning rod into his DNA, and he was able to manipulate Och as easily as Lup or any native. It was done near the end of their five-month period, so it was actually the last experiment they were able to complete. They made many other breakthroughs, but that was easily the most successful. It also meant that there was no risk of overheating, which meant they didn’t have to hold hands at all times in the main chamber. Which was a good thing… right? 

***

The sight they saw that year as they left was a particularly depressing one from the ship. The cloud of the Hunger’s darkness descending on a planet blanketed on light, snuffing out all signs of life on the planet below. 

Barry and Magnus decided to stay behind and fight that year. This wasn’t uncommon for Magnus, as a good fight was one of his greatest joys, and protecting people was even better. So the end of the year combat against the Hunger was always a great opportunity for him. Barry wanted to test out the combative abilities of his augmented DNA, as well as another reason. 

He and Lup had explained more to the Overmancer about what the Hunger actually did. So, he had promised to leave his protective dome on that fateful day, and truly show off the full extent of his power. Barry wanted to fight side by side with this mythic persona who had become his friend. 

So they did. They took to one of the fields outside Araina as the world began to turn gray. They saw the Starblaster shoot into the sky, and Barry knew that he would at least get out safely. Then the Hunger’s minions began to come forth, like the oncoming tide of some great black ocean. And he watched in awe as that tide was met with the awesome force of the tempest as the Overmancer released his power. 

Barry had seen the damage that the Hunger could wreak first hand a few times. He had seen it take the lives of many, but he hadn’t seen anyone fight back before. Not like this. Bolts of Och arced out from him like spears, piercing shadows three at a time. Great waves of power rolled out from him, reducing smaller ones to powder. It was a sight to behold. Through the onslaught, Barry called out. 

“It has been an honor to work with you, Overmancer!” 

Then, the Overmancer turned to him, his skull backlit by lightning so bright his skin appeared translucent. 

  
  


“Please. Call me Occeum.” 

  
  


The crew that stayed on the Starblaster that year saw light snuffed out by darkness. They saw just another world being consumed by the Hunger. They saw an apocalypse, the end of a world. They saw the darkness win. 

Barry, just by virtue of position, saw the opposite. He saw light slice through the shadows. He saw a world fighting back. He saw the Hunger come to feed, and saw its prey bite it in the ass. Barry learned something that year. He learned that while the darkness seemed all-consuming, a single spark could still make one hell of a dent. 


	6. Lup - Year Six - The Fire Within

Six years. Over half of a decade. Nothing to an elf in terms of lifespan, but more than enough to forge bonds, unlike any others. Lup had been on the ship as they left the electrified world from their last cycle, and realizing that they would be resetting fully in a few moments, had started just blasting spells off the side of the ship. Fireballs, magic missiles, disintegration rays, and of course, many lightning bolts. As soon as the threads of lights began to appear from the bond engine, she put everything she had into one last forceful spell, unleashing a firestorm behind the ship that for a moment turned the darkness of the Hunger into brightest day. 

She was sewn back together embracing the person with whom she shared the strongest bond. Taako, her brother. She had known the rest of the IPRE for six years of traveling through reality, plus roughly a year of training before that, but she had known her brother for far longer. They had spent their entire lives together, doing what they had to to survive. There are few stronger bonds than that. From cooking for traveling circuses and running from raiders, to the few times they had a home and learning to cook with their Aunt, they had been through everything together. 

They regenerated looking over the side of the ship, holding on to each other like the world was ending. Because, when they had been recorded, it was. When they were put back together for the sixth time, they untangled themselves just slightly. They continued holding hands, just staring over the side, at the beautiful sight that was the planar system. 

“Well. I guess we just do it again.” 

“Yep. What wack shit awaits us this time? Dragons made of light? People with eyes that are knives? I’m  _ soooo  _ excited to find out.” 

Lup laughed, as shoved her brother away. His pessimistic attitude contrasted her positive outlook to such an extent that it was comedic, and it was great for them together. But this time, he was right. They had no idea what they were going into, and they had to be ready for anything. It could be dangerous. They had to be prepared. As she thought, she heard Davenport’s voice calling them into the dining room for their annual post-regeneration meeting. She started on her way belowdecks, and extinguished the flame in her palm she didn’t even realize she had summoned. 

“Alright. So, Lup and Barry. You two stay are going to check out our immediate surroundings like you did last year. That went really well. I want Merle to go with you this time. Check out any plant life, see if it’s edible. We need to increase our food stores. Magnus, Taako, you guys can chill for now. Lucretia, I want to go over your notes for last year with you. Just check in on it. Does that sound good for everyone?” 

There were various affirmations, grunts, and “yeah”s. Taako loudly announced that he was going to go take a “bigass nap,” and promptly left the room, followed by Lucretia and Davenport. Barry got up and started to make for the lab. Lup decided to follow. 

“Oh. Hey Lup. I was going to get some stuff ready. We still have a few hours before touchdown, so you don’t need to…”

Lup cut him off with a wave of her hand, which she brought down and draped dramatically over Barry’s shoulder.

“And miss out on spending some quality time with my bestest friend in the whole wide world, Barold J. Bluejeans? Not for anything.”

Barry’s quizzical look and stiff posture seemed to say it all. Lup quickly pulled back and dusted off her robe. 

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

This time it was Barry’s turn to interrupt. 

“No, no, It’s not that. I mean, well, that was a little strange, but, no. I just. ‘J’? I don’t…? My name is just Barry. Barry Bluejeans. I don’t have a middle name. Where did you get the ‘J’ from?”

Lup exhaled. She had been worried that she had actually done something wrong and upset Barry. Turns out he just hadn’t gotten a joke. The absolute nerd. 

“Well, Barold, that is what us elves call a ‘Joke.’ And if you study them correctly, you might even come to enjoy them. Come Mr. Bluejeans, to the laboratory! We can study jokes together!” 

She swirled her robe around herself with a quick gust of wind that caught her hair up as well and took off dramatically down the hallway. The thing about hanging out with Barry wasn’t a joke. She did genuinely enjoy spending time with him. He was so smart, and it was hard to be around him without learning something. He also needed to get out of his shell, and who better to do that than her? And she had to start somewhere. She smiled to herself as she heard Barry’s heavy footsteps begin to follow her down the hall towards the lab. 

***

The world they descended into seemed to be totally devoid of life at first glance. The entire thing was covered in mountains and hills, with even rivers and small lakes being rare. It was daytime when they entered the prime material plane, and twin suns lit up the world with brilliant light. The world for this year seemed safe, if boring. Which Taako commented on. Repeatedly. 

“Nothing at all! Again! All of reality sucks.” 

Barry had actually been thinking about this. Life in itself was fascinating to him, especially the mere fact of its existance. 

“Well when you think about it, it makes sense. The chances of life arising at all are so phenomenally low that it’s baffling that it happens at all. So the vast majority of planar systems not having life would make sense.” 

“Get out of here with your science talk, Mr. Science Man. Let me be pissy in peace.” 

“Since when does your peace require being in the lab while we track the Light? I thought that you, and I quote ‘wanted nothing to do with all that nerd shit’? Go bother Capn’Port. Ask if you can sit in his lap and steer.”

Barry was glad for Lup’s interjection. Taako had a way of getting into his head and keeping him from getting any useful work done.

  
They had barely seen the Light fall that year, but with nothing of interest on the surface, they had a lot of time to search. So they had immediately gotten to work triangulating its position, and Taako, being bored, had followed them. He had mostly just spun around in a swivel chair and complained. But after Lup’s jab, he finally got up and went to the door, but not without a remark of his own. 

“Fine, fine I’ll go. I know what you’re actually doing! Just trying to get me out of the room so you can have some quality alone time! I know you're not doing actual work! Maybe I will tell Capn’Port. Captain! Lup and Barry…” 

His voice faded as he walked down the hallway in the opposite direction from the cockpit, where Davenport was looking for a place to bring them down. Lup turned to Barry, about to reassure him that Taako was just kidding, not to take it personally. But instead of finding him beet-red and flustered, he was locked in on his work, staring intensely at a notebook, his eyes occasionally flicking back and forth between a calculator and the notes they had taken. He didn’t even seem to have noticed. 

Watching him work was becoming a favorite pastime of hers. It reminded her of when she and Taako had been first learning magic. The fanatic focus they poured into memorizing every hand motion, every incantation. At the time for them, it had been life or death. Cast a firebolt at a bandit or he would sell you into a slave market. Charm a goblin or you would be his dinner. But as they grew more powerful, their ferocity waned. They were still formidable, but calmer. Barry, on the other hand, approached every equation, every theory like his life depended on it. He enclosed himself in a bubble that seemed impenetrable from the outside. She wondered what Taako and herself would be like if they still put that kind of energy into their spellcasting. How much more powerful would they be? 

***

They eventually landed the Starblaster in a relatively flat expanse of rock that backed up to a large cliff. The reasoning was that if the planet turned out to be inhabited, after all, they wouldn’t be able to be ambushed. That idea immediately fell apart, however, when Barry, Lup, and Merle stepped on the ship to collect the first samples of this new world. 

There were a few things that weren’t immediately concerning. Firstly, the cliff they were backed up against was pockmarked with caves. Some were no larger than the head of a pin, others could swallow the Starblaster whole with room to spare. That wasn’t the issue. 

There were also waist-high stalagmites coming out of the ground, scattered around randomly. While this didn’t seem strange at first, Barry pointed something out that gave the others pause. 

“Hey. So, uh, stalagmites? They usually form by water dripping from a cave ceiling and depositing sediment on the cave floor. And right now? We aren’t in a cave. No ceiling for water to drip from.” 

He pointed up, and sure enough, they were beneath a bright white sky. But, while weird, the stalactites were not what they were concerned about either. 

If they had been looking a little closer, they would have noticed something else. A large black stain on the ground in the middle of the clearing. It looked like a shadow at first glance, so they paid it no mind. But had they investigated more, they would have noticed how much it resembled a great bloodstain. 

What they did notice was far more threatening than all of those things. Lup was the one who saw it first. Right after Barry pointed out the strangeness of the stalagmites, she grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, silently pointing to the cave closest to them. It was roughly the size of a garage but stretched back far enough that they wouldn’t be able to see the back of it, even if there wasn’t... something in the way. And that was the reason for Lup’s fear. 

They could barely make out its shape, other than it was big. Real big. Eight feet at least, and it was on all fours. Black mist poured off of its form in sheets, blanketing the ground. Its body heaved with deep breathing. Its eyes shone like diamonds, piercing the darkness of the cave. Its too-long limbs ended with claws the length of swords, that looked perfect for rending flesh. And unfortunately, it seemed that Barry and Lup were about to see those vicious weapons in action. 

Merle, being his less-than-cautious self, had wandered away from them. He had just been exploring, seeing if there was any plant life at all. Maybe some lichen, or some weeds that had managed to poke through the rock. He hadn’t found anything yet, but he wasn’t bothered. He thought that he would have a year to keep searching. He had no idea how wrong he was. 

Barry and Lup saw Merle looking at the ground, unknowingly wandering closer and closer to the mouth of the cave. They saw that the beast had its crystal eyes locked on him, and was breathing more rapidly. They were signs they all knew. There were the signs of a predator about to make a kill. They would have called out to Merle, to warn him, make him aware of the avatar of death that he was bumbling towards, but their minds were seized by some unnatural terror. They could only watch. 

He had his head down as he approached, searching the ground for plant life. As soon as he stepped into the shadow of the cave, the beast leaped into action. It was horrifying to behold. It reared back on its hind legs and brought the front two out wide like it was spreading wings. Then, it opened its mouth. Its jaw unhinged like a snake, and the sound that issued out from it was unlike anything else they had ever heard. It was a cross between a screech and a hiss, low enough to shake their bones, but still rang in their ears. It startled Merle, and he looked up just in time to see two claws close on him like a vice. The blades entered one side and came out the other, just as it lunged forwards with that horrible maw. It retracted its claws almost instantly, and then swallowed him whole. 

And then it was over. Less than six seconds had passed, and their friend was gone. Not permanently, but it was hard to think about that when they had just seen him run through and devoured by a shadow monster. Lup and Barry stood stock still, Lup with her had still on Barry’s shoulder. They took shallow breaths, afraid to draw it’s attention to themselves. She could feel his heartbeat pounding through his entire body, shaking his entire being with fear. She could feel it in herself too. Whatever that thing was, it should not exist. As they stared at it in paralyzed horror, it slunk back into the shadows, disappearing into whatever dark depths from whence it came. 

They must have stood there for five minutes, just staring at the cave, frozen. First, the feeling came back into their feet. Then their legs. As soon as they could feel their arms, they turned and ran. The sound of their footsteps echoed off of the stone, their panting breaths the only other sound that accompanied them. They pushed themselves to the limit, running hard, trying not to imagine that that…  _ thing  _ was right behind them, its labored breath down their necks. They only stopped when they were on the deck of the Starblaster, where they collapsed. 

Magnus had been in his room, deciding whether to organize his weights this year by color, weight, or size. Eventually, he decided on color. A nice rainbow always was pleasing to the eye. His sorting was interrupted by the thudding of footsteps on from on deck, followed by two loud thuds. He was out the door and running before his brain even could comprehend what that meant.

***

“I still don’t get why we don’t just go in there and blast the hell out of it.” 

Taako had always made a big show of being indifferent to Merle. He liked to dunk on his height, his healing abilities, his smell, his god, and whatever else he could think of at the time. But now that he was gone, all that he could feel was rage. Rage towards the thing that took his friend. 

“Because, Taako, we know next to nothing about it. Maybe it lives in packs. Maybe it has other powers we don’t know about. We don’t know anything and we can’t risk it right now.” 

Davenport was heartbroken. Merle had been one of his closest friends on the ship. But he was the captain, and he couldn’t afford to show weakness. And they couldn’t afford to make rash decisions based on emotional reactions. But once they knew more… 

“You didn’t see it Taako. It was eight feet tall, at least, and that was when it was crouching. Merle didn’t even have time to blink. Not to mention that fear aura that Lup and I were hit by. Honestly, I think even if we did go on some sort of hunt, that we could do much to it. I’ve never even read about anything like this.” 

Barry was still terrified. He was no longer struck by the creature’s magical fear, but nothing scared him more than the unknown. And that was exactly was this was. They knew nothing. It could be anything, do anything, and he was going to be left in the dark. He wished he had a book about this thing, a pamphlet, a name tag, anything. But he had nothing. And he was afraid. 

“Barold has a fair point, but on the other hand, I can whip up a good bit of flash and bang. Not much can stand up to my fire, on any world. We could always try. And good firestorm to the face sure as hell isn’t going to feel  _ good _ .”

Like Taako, Lup’s fear had been replaced by anger. She had been suppressing all off her it since getting back to the ship, covering it up with humor and furious silence. She didn’t plan to keep it bottled up forever. She planned to find that beast that had taken Merle from them, and release her magic on it, fueled by her rage, by her sorrow. She didn’t want to use that fuel up too soon. She wanted to see that monster burn. 

“I’m with Lup on this one. I’ll grab my ax, maybe hook Barry and Capn’Port up with some swords, and while Lup and Taako get blasting, we get to choppin’.” 

Magnus was also furious, but not with any creature. He was furious with himself. It was his job to protect the crew, to keep them safe. And he had been color-coding his weights while Merle had been slaughtered. He couldn’t fix his mistake, but he could exact revenge. And be doubly vigilant. He promised himself that nobody would be going anywhere remotely dangerous without him for the rest of the year. The only thing keeping his sane was the fact that Merle would be back. He didn’t want to imagine what it would be like if death was permanent. More like, didn’t want to remember. 

Lucretia hated being the bearer of bad news. But so often, it seemed like that roll fell to her. Maybe that was because she was always observing, and she saw things the others didn’t want to notice. Maybe it was because she was just more pessimistic and subconsciously liked to point out the negative. It could also have just been plain old bad luck. But it didn’t often feel that way. 

“While the plans we have, visa ve chopping sound solid, I have some bad news about the blasting.” 

The entire room went completely silent. Everyone stopped moving around in their chairs. Magnus stopped tapping his fingers on the table. Davenport and the twins unconsciously started holding their breath. More bad news? Bad news from Lucretia was never good because she seemed to always know what was going on just a bit more than everyone else. And coupled with Merle’s death? This was shaping up to be one of their worst years yet, and things were just beginning. 

“I tried to light a candle earlier today. A simple evocation spell. Nothing dramatic. And well… I think it’s easier to just show you. Lup, try and whip up a flame for us, would you?” 

Lup’s brow was knitted up with concern. She slowly pulled her wand out from the pocket of her robe and flicked it into her left hand. She eyed her brother and swirled her wand in the air and a familiar bright flame burst into existance at its tip.

“Well, I’m not seeing a problem here ‘Creesh. Everything seems-”

She was cut off by multiple rapid-fire popping sounds. They startled everyone in the room enough to make them jump, Magnus enough that he almost fell out of his chair. The popping wasn’t the most startling thing, however. That was reserved for what made the noise. 

Each pop was accompanied by an appearance. The appearance of a creature that was unlike anything the crew had seen before. One moment, the room contained only the seven of them. The next, six small, spherical creatures with a single eye and mouth each were there as well. None of them were larger than a foot across. They snapped into existance at varying points around the room, hovering at least a few feet off of the floor. But they all immediately turned and zoomed towards Lup’s fire. 

Magnus yelled and grabbed two butter knives, intent on cutting these things out of the air. He didn’t know what they were, but they were flying towards Lup. Lucretia had seen one before when she had tried to make some light in her room. It had been completely harmless, so she wasn’t afraid. She had told Davenport already, so he wasn’t worried either. He had been started by their appearance, but now was rather interested in the little fellows. Taako immediately cast a  _ shield  _ spell around himself and his sister as soon as they had appeared. Lup and Barry were both too transfixed with them to do anything but see what came next. 

And what came next was a sight to behold. The creatures swarmed the fire, encircling it like planets around a star. They then opened their tiny mouths, and each one siphoned a portion of it into itself. Then, one by one, there was another pop, and they disappeared. All but one. 

The one that was left was easily the smallest of the lot. It was only about six inches across, and its skin was a mottled red. Its single eye was solid gold with a silver pupil, and its mouth was full of razor-sharp if tiny, teeth. They could only see those because after all the others had sucked up their share of Lup’s magic, it was left gnawing on the tip of her wand with a ferocity that did not match up with its size. 

Lup shook her wand, and still, it didn’t let go. It turned its lone eye on her, but it left its jaws clenched tight. Taako sighed and cast a  _ mage hand  _ to pry it off. It took a bit, but eventually, he dislodged the creature. It then stayed, hovering in front of the twins, it’s eye flicking back and forth between them, it’s mouth slowly opening and closing. 

“I think… it’s hungry?” 

“That seems right. As far as I can tell, once they consume something evocation based, they’ll pop right back off.” 

“Well alright then. Here you go, little guy.”

She had put her wand away quckly, to make sure that it didn’t get another chance to chomp down, but she didn’t need a wand to conjure a quick shower of sparks. As they shot up into the air, just like it’s brethren, the creature opened its maw and sucked them right up. But unlike the others, it didn’t just disappear. Instead, it just blinked, then floated over to Lup. Cautiously, she raised a hand up to it. It floated forwards and bumped up against her palm. Then she lowered her hand and smiled. In unison, it floated next to her head and smiled a toothy grin. 

“I think it likes me.” 

***

That night, everyone unanimously decided to stay on the ship. Whatever the thing that had killed Merle was, it clearly was a creature of the dark. And creatures of the dark were always far more abundant at night. Their fears were seemingly confirmed when the echoing scream-hisses that Lup and Barry had described started to echo out through the night as soon as the suns set. Everyone had their blinds shut tight for fear of catching a glimpse of whatever else prowled in the hours of darkness, but they needn’t worry about that, as Magnus and the twins found early the next morning. 

Magnus always rose early by force of habit. He had no intention of actually going on a run by himself, but his body had no way of knowing that. So when in a half-asleep state he opened his blinds, expecting to see the soft dawn of a new day, what greeted him was difficult to process. At first, he thought that he must have woken far earlier than he thought, or maybe he had slept the whole day away? But no, that didn’t make any sense, because even midnight couldn’t be  _ that  _ dark. He checked the clock in his room, and it said, sure enough, he was right on schedule. He thought that must be going crazy. Because the sky and the entire world outside was black as the void between the stars. 

Neither of the twins could sleep very well with the sounds coming from outside. Taako cited the fact that ‘the little terror,’ which is what he had fondly nicknamed Lup’s new friend, snored as the reason that he couldn’t rest, but they both knew he was bullshitting. He decided to trance instead, and Lup decided to join him. So for a few hours, the only sounds coming from their shared room were the surprisingly loud snores of one small magic eating sphere. 

They awoke almost in unison, as was normal for them. So often did they trance together, that they would sync up, and wake at the same time. This time was no different. Their eyes opened, they looked at each other and smiled. Then the smiles dropped from their faces together. 

“Something’s wrong” 

“Yeah.”

“Do you want you to go figure out what that is?” 

“No.” 

“Are you going to come with me anyway?” 

Taako sighed. He absolutely didn’t want to go out in the middle of the night to hunt for clues and solve a mystery. But on the other hand, his sister was going. And he couldn’t let her go by herself. And hanging out with her would be fun at least. 

“Yeah.” 

They stood up off the floor, and the little creature reacted to their movements. While it had been sleeping on their dresser, it had rolled upside-down. But as its eye flicked open, it quickly righted itself and floated over beside Lup. 

“Oh, gods. I forgot about that thing. Is it actually going to follow you everywhere? What did you even call it again? Bim?”

Lup dramatically gasped and placed a hand over her chest. 

“His name is Tim, and I love him with my entire being. The fact that you could even call him a ‘thing’ wounds my very soul.” 

Tim spun in a circle and bared his teeth. Originally, they thought that, like most creatures, the showing of teeth was a threat. But apparently, these “Poppers,” as the crew had named them, used that sign to show joy and happiness. And Tim liked to do it a lot. Especially when he was around Lup. 

But despite Tim’s positive attitude, the energy that permeated the hallways of the Starblaster was dark and grim. Only the lowlights were on, so the twins relied on their darkvision to see as they crept from their room up to the deck. It felt somehow wrong to summon some sort of light source. They didn’t realize it, but they were walking crouched over, as quietly as possible. They hadn’t done this for a long time, but when they were growing up, stealth had been one of their only options for survival. 

Without even thinking about it, they walked in sync, making the two of them sound like one. They slowed their breathing to nearly a standstill, and once again in unison. Quiet and in sync. These techniques had been honed in forests, running from kidnappers and wild beasts, always for escape. But now, the situation had been flipped on its head. Now, they were quiet and in sync, but moving towards their fear, not away from it.

They heard a thud, the sound of a heavy footstep coming from the living room. Taako silently raised a hand, and they froze. Tim got the idea, and stayed next to Lup, silent as could be. They started to move their hands in a complicated dance, a type of language they had invented for these exact situations. Lup wanted to burst into the room, wands blazing, but with a meaningful look at Tim, Taako reminded her that any evocation would just summon a bunch of Poppers. 

Eventually, they came to the conclusion that Taako would enter first. He would make a big fuss if there was anything worrying in there. If not, he would come back and tell Lup. He managed to convince her that transmutation wouldn’t call the Poppers, so if he needed to, he could try and petrify any intruder. Lup hated it, but she eventually concluded that he was right. Without her primary magic, she was only going to get in the way. So she watched from around the corner as her brother slunk into the living room. 

Taako moved as quietly as he could, just trying to get an idea of what they had heard moving around in the living room. He had his wand out, and crept, hunched over into the open space. There was something there, a shape on the floor. His eyes widened and he dashed behind the couch for cover. Then, slowly, he raised his head up over the edge to see what had made its way into their ship. 

He couldn't quite make out exactly what it was. He squinted, but even with his elvish darkvision, it was just so ink black in the room. Some part of his subconscious wondered why there wasn’t more light coming in through the windows. He eventually decided that decisive action was the only option. There was a driftglobe on a small table next to the couch. It was a small glass orb, that when activated, would float in the air and shed light enough to illuminate the entire room. They normally would use it as a replacement lamp when they wanted a different atmosphere than an electric lightbulb could provide. But now, it might shed light on a battle for his life. 

He took one deep breath, then lept into action. He dove to the table and grabbed the globe, then as he fell, he tossed it into the air. He called out the activation word, and that same part of his subconscious realized how ridiculous it must sound in this context. But Merle had come up with it, and nobody else knew how or cared enough to change it.

“Shabba-Doo!” 

Instantly, it floated into the air and began to glow. Takko leapt to his feet, his want held in his specialized dueling position. Whatever this thing was, he was about to turn its ass into peppermint if it turned out to be a threat. But when he finally got a good look at the shape, and he was able to tell what it was, the fight went out of his body and was replaced with confusion. 

“Magnus?” 

Because that mysterious lump on the floor didn’t turn out to be any demon or shadow creature. There were no claws or fangs, no imminent death staring him in the face. It was just his friend, Magnus, the big proud fighter, curled up in a ball, sitting in the middle of the living room floor. 

As soon as he saw him, Magnus jumped to his feet. He ran at Taako, and instantly had him locked in a bone-crushing hug. Taako was confused at first, and tried to squirm out, until he felt the deep, rhythmic shaking coming from the smothering form around him. At first, he couldn't quite tell what was happening, it was so strange. And then, it clicked. Magnus was crying. 

Slowly, he freed his arms, and wrapped them around Magnus’ back. He wasn’t the most touchy-feely person, so his hugging skills were a little rusty, but he could tell that all Magnus needed right now was his presence. 

“Hey big guy. It’s okay. I’m here. What… Hey man, what’s going on?” 

Magnus let go, and seemed to deflate. His form that normally seemed so invincible now looked like a birthday balloon a week after the party. He collapsed on the couch and put his head in his hands. He began to mutter, almost to himself. It was into his hands, and Taako couldn’t make out a single word. 

Taako was completely out of his depth. Social rescue had never been his area of expertise, and he knew it. He leaned back, and looked down the hallway he had come down, and saw Lup, with her hands up in a wild questioning gesture. He silently beckoned her forwards. She shot forwards like an arrow from a bow, and slid to a stop besides him, still crouched. He pointed to Magnus. Lup nodded. 

She went over to the couch, and sat down beside her friend. She pu a hand on her his shoulder, and began to speak in a calm, even voice. 

“Hey Mags. I don’t know what’s going on, but Taako and I are here now. Lucretia, Davenport and Barry are asleep in their rooms. We’re safe. What happened? If you want to talk about it, I’m here. But if not, I’m still here.” 

Magnus lifted his head from his hands. He looked at Lup. Then he turned, and looked at Taako. And then he took his turn to speak. His voice, normally so strong and resonant, now sounded weak and fragile. It was quiet, like it might break at any moment. 

“It was so dark. Everywhere. I couldn’t see anything. Just in my room, there was light, but outside there was nothing. I kept running into stuff, and I couldn’t find a switch, or the driftglobe or anything. It was just…” 

It was then that Taako and Lup remembered. As elves, they were blessed with natural darkvision. Their whole lives, the night had only meant the presence of new threats, but no actual incombrance to themselves. And here, in this world, it had been nearly impossible for even them to see. But to Magnus, a human with no such gifts… 

***

They sat together in the living room until the duel suns rose, bathed in the cool blue light of the driftglobe. They shifted between comfortable silence and talking about nothing. They comforted him until the light returned, and they bonded over memories of how they had all confronted the darkness in the past. 

Eventually, Lucretia joined them. She sat cross legged in the middle of the floor, quietly writing as the three others joked and laughed. She would occasionally offer commentary of her own, and it was rare enough that it was always listened to. And it was always perfectly timed and placed. You wouldn’t think it looking at her, but Lucretia had a wonderful sense of humor. She would look up, say something in a stone-faced deadpan, and immediately go back to writing. But the things she said were solid gold every time. 

Davenport came in as the suns rose. He seemed surprised to find the four of them there, but not for long. He took his customary place in the large armchair in the front of the room, and just listened. He didn’t interject often, and he didn’t tell jokes. But he would laugh when one was told that he liked. It became a competition between the twins to see who could pull a laugh out of Davenport. They even began keeping score. 

By the time Barry woke up, Taako had already started cooking breakfast. Blueberry pancakes. But the berries were transmuted from elderberries, and not always. So every bite was a surprise. He claimed it was an accident, but Lup swore otherwise. 

That morning was a much needed bonding exercise for the crew. It was full of light and laughter, of joy and smiles. Because the rest of the year, there would be only darkness. Darkness and death.

***

“So tell me again why a vessel of science has a goddamned  _ Armory!?”  _

Barry, Lup, Davenport and Lucretia were standing before Magnus in a room that most of them had thought was just a supply closet. But when Magnus had told them about a ‘special surprise’ that they needed to see, of course they had come running. 

“It’s not an armory. This is just my personal stash. Just the necessities, you know. And since all of your offensive magic isn’t available to you in this world, I’m teaching you all how to use some of it. And no, this isn’t optional, Taako.” 

Lup scanned the room. It was the size of a small bedroom, the wall lined with swords, knives and all kinds of melee weapons. It was all very hack and slash. Very Magnus, and not her. But there, in the back, was a single longbow. All of the other weapons were polished and shining, razor sharp. They had special holders and places on the walls. The bow, however, was dusty and just propped up against the wall. If Magnus was going to make her learn to use a normal weapon, she was going to be annoying about it. She strode across the room, and scooped up the longbow and the quiver of arrows next to it. 

“I’ll take this one.” 

Magnus knitted his eyebrows and frowned.

“Alright. I’m not exactly… super proficient with ranged weapons, but I can show you the ropes I guess-”

“FUCK YEAH!” 

Taako was standing in the middle of the room, spinning a glaive around above his head like a helicopter blade. 

“This shit kicks total ass! This is mine now.” 

“Alright, cool. Just, try not to decapitate any of us with it. Davenport, Barry, Lucretia, what do you think?” 

Barry had taken down a gleaming scimitar off of the wall, and was testing its weight in one hand versus the other. He slashed it through the air first in his right, then his left. Then he quickly spun it around in his left hand, then behind his back and passed it off to his right, before re-sheathing it.

“I probably should have mentioned this before, but I did a little swordplay before I started putting all of my time into my schooling. I guess I haven't lost all of that skill. You mind if I take this one?” 

Magnus’ eyes were wide. He walked over to Barry, and put his hand on his shoulder. 

“My man, that was some sick shit. If you ever wanna spar or something, I am always down.” 

Taako quickly ran over, and planted the end of his glaive between the two of them. He then put his hand on Magnus’ chest, and pushed him back. He then took a defensive stance in front of Barry. 

“Step off Mags. Badass Barry is mine. You can have Capn’Port.” 

Barry coughed nervously, and stepped out from behind Taako. He grabbed a spare sheathe of the counter, and went to go stand next to the door, where Lucretia still hadn’t moved. Lup was there too, counting her arrows. 

Davenport was still looking around the room. He had taken a few things down, examined them, then put them back. Eventually, he honed in on two crossed daggers that hung next to the door. He took them down, and when he unsheathed them, the blades were revealed to be made of a bright blue metal that shone even in the brightness of the room. 

“Well, I’ve never been much of a fighter, but I suppose it is best if we all expand on our areas of expertise. Magnus, I’ll take these if that’s okay with you.” 

Magnus crossed his arms and nodded, a smile forming on his face. This is exactly what he had wanted. After Merle’s death, he had been tearing himself apart. He had eventually realized that he couldn’t be everywhere at all time to protect everyone. But he could give people the tools to protect themselves. And eventually, the skills to use those tools. That part would take time. But first… 

“Luc, you planning on joining us? I know you don’t get out much, but it can’t hurt to be prepared.”

Finally, Lucretia looked up from her journal. She had been, as usual, taking notes about what had been happening in the room before her, and not engaging in it. She smiled. She had no need for weapons. She wasn’t a fighter. 

“No, thank you though. I’m far more confident with my magic, which isn’t threatened by the Poppers. I use abjuration mostly, so I’ll be able to keep you all safe while you kick ass.” 

Magnus shrugged. He didn’t want to push her right now. But eventually, he would get a blade in her hands. 

***

The rest of that year was spent doing one of a few things. During the day, they trained on the deck of the ship. Lucretia would conjure illusory enemies, and the crew would do what they could to slay their foes. Magnus would stay on the sidelines, calling out advice and strategies that were so ingrained in his mind that it was difficult at the beginning to even comprehend that he needed to explain them. 

The IPRE was a group of scientists. They weren’t soldiers, or fighters. They weren’t even artisans who spent their days doing hard labor. Barry and Davenport had spent most of their adult lives in labs and conference halls. The twins had barely ever touched physical weapons before, much less trained with them. But they had become so close over the course of seven years of working together, that in any action, they worked together like a well oiled machine. 

Even with Magnus calling out suggestions, Davenport naturally took the lead. Once, when Lucretia called up a vision of a phalanx of legionnaires, he actually pulled rank on Magnus and told him to grab an ax and get into the fight. They then took up an arrowhead position and pierced the illusory defences like a sword through a piece of paper. 

Lup was a natural with the bow. Early on, she learned that she could influence the winds to guide her arrows, as long as she didn’t summon actual new ones. She very rarely missed her mark, though it took her awhile to hone in on what that mark should be. With fire, you pretty much just have to make contact. But with an arrow, accuracy was everything. 

More than once, she ran out of arrows. In those cases, or when she was run down by an illusory dragon or some other threat, instinct would take over. Her hands would ignite, and she would immolate the threat in front of her. Or, more accurately, she would try. She would begin the incantation, and would be cut off by a cacophony of pops and snaps and a swarm of Poppers blinked into existence and devoured her magic. It was infuriating, but it made sure that she wouldn’t accidentally try and do it in a time of actual crisis. 

Barry and Taako fought together seamlessly. There was something about their personalities and the natural way they moved through the world that, socially, put them at odds. But in combat, time and time again, they found themselves back to back, glaive and scimitar against the world. It was in those moments that they would laugh, look at each other, and smile. Because in those moments, they knew that all of the teasing and joking, all of the jabs were just that. Jokes between friends. They were friends, and nothing was going to change that. 

*** 

The rest of the time was spent in hiding. At night, they slept in the living room as the world outside them screamed. There were howls, screeches and the crack of bones and stone. It was a unanimous decision after the first few nights that they couldn’t sleep alone. First, Magnus brought a sleeping bag into the living room to find Lucretia already curled up on the couch. He had smiled, and taken a spot on the floor. 

Barry joined them soon after. He usually slept in the dark, but this darkness was something else entirely. He couldn’t stand it. So he, too, eventually found himself sleeping in the living room. It wasn’t on purpose. One night he just didn’t go to bed, and woke up surrounded by friends. And he decided that, for this year, he would stay like that. 

The twins didn’t like feeling left out, and once they moved into the communal sleeping space, it started to feel really like something nice. But there was something missing. So of course, Lup and Magnus are forced to go and drag Davenport out of his room into their blanket nest. 

*** 

That year was the first time they were glad to see that the Hunger had arrived. They had been practicing on deck, facing off against a squadron of devils, when the sky had turned black in the middle of the day. Then, in the next moment, there was a thunderous boom, and it was shot through with threads of reds, blues, greens and yellows. 

Lucretia had immediately dropped the illusion, and Davenport had sprinted to the helm. Everyone else got below decks, aside from Lup. She had told the others that she wanted to take potshots at the hunger from the deck. She wanted to put her new skills to use on something that mattered. 

So as this world ends, we see Lup. We see her again, standing on the back of the starblaster. This time there is no fire roaring forth from her. The only flames we see are in her eyes. There, we see fire. It burns with a furious hatred of the things that took her friend from her, of the Hunger that has tried to do the same so many times. But it also burns with a passionate love for the friends she has left. That is Lup’s true fire. She may conjure flames capable of incinerating armies or evaporating oceans, but her true flame is that love that burns within her. 

So we see Lup. She stands against the forthcoming darkness, bow held steady, an arrow knocked. Besides her, we see a small spherical creature, his jaws locked tightly around an arrow already pockmarked with fang marks. His single eye blinks repeatedly. Lup’s hair flows out behind her as the Starblaster takes off, and she looses her arrow, and as always, it flies true. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops! Sorry this one is a little late! I had so many ideas that I couldn't fit in, I had to figure out what I could and what I couldn't.


	7. Year Seven - Taako - This Little Family

Taako was woven together on the deck of the ship, the same way he had for the last seven years. Holding his sister’s hand, looking out over yet another new planar system. Another year, another world. Everyone had already started making their way into the dining room for the customary post-regeneration meeting, but when Lup began to pull him along, he pulled back. 

“LuLu, hold on a minute.” 

Seeing Lup concerned was a new experience for him. Even in their years of traveling and living together, she had almost always kept her cool. No matter what the world threw at them, they had stood tall together. Just the two of them against the big bad world. But in these past seven years, that unshakable demeanor had started to crack just slightly. Only for a few moments at a time, not enough that anyone else would notice, but Taako did. Subtle knitting of the eyebrows. A nervous glance to the side. He felt it too. Now it wasn’t just the two of them against the big bad world. It was them against the big bad universe. Against it all. 

“Yeah ‘Ko? What’s up?” 

He waited until everyone else had cleared the deck. They would just assume that they were planning the first meal they were going to make. It wasn’t unusual for the twins to be a little late, and Taako didn’t intend for this to take more than a few minutes. 

“Oh come on LuLu. You know exactly what’s up. This.”

He waved one arm out, gesturing to, at once, the Starblaster, but also capturing the idea of what he meant. The absurdity of their situation. How crazy their new lives were. 

“For our entire lives, we have had one plan. Us against the world, the Twins who just wouldn’t die. No problem too big. Like you said during that press conference on our last day on the homeworld. We did that world, and kind of crushed it. But now what LuLu? Now what? Are we enough to take on all of reality? Take on the Hunger? It’s… just a lot.”

He hung his head. He hadn’t meant for it to get this bleak. He had just started talking and the words had just kept coming until he couldn’t stop them anymore. It just all flowed out of him like a river, leaving him drained. 

Lup took his hand again and pulled him into a tight embrace. Then, with a laugh, she spun him out until they stood, arms spread, facing the planar system laid out before them. 

“Honestly ‘Ko, you might be right. Just us, we might not be able to take on everything alone. One world, we got that easy. But all of them? That’s a little much, even for us.”

Then it was her turn for a grand gesture. But she didn’t indicate the infinity that stretched out before them. She waved at the entrance to the ship below. She drew his eyes to the door to the cabin that, right now, held the rest of the crew. 

“But the thing is  _ Taako _ , is that we aren’t alone this time. It isn’t just the twins against the world. We’ve got a whole amazing crew to back us up. And don’t get me wrong, it’s gonna be hard. I haven’t the slightest clue how we’re gonna do it. But I know that, just like you and me taking homeworld by storm, this little family is going to do the same to all of reality. I just know it ‘Ko. I know it.” 

And for the first time in this new reality, Taako smiled. 

***

The meeting was just about the same as usual. Davenport talked about getting a good read on a landing spot, Barry talked about finding a steady food source and getting any kind of lead on, well anything. Lucretia wrote it all down, scratching away in her journals. Merle wanted to try and get whatever sentient life he could find all into the worship of Pan. Magnus was bored, daydreaming about what fun stuff might be down on that new world he might get to fight. For Taako and Lup, however, the meeting was different than all the others. 

For Taako, he was trying his damnedest to be interested. If these people were going to be his, and all of reality’s, only hope, he might as well get to know them better. For the past six or so years, he had been his usual distant self. Purposely keeping his emotions distant, or at least trying to. He had grown closer with Magnus during that last year, without even meaning to. And during this meeting, he seemed just as bored. 

Barry was a nerd and didn’t even try to hide it. It was hilarious, and he was so much fun to tease, but Lup kept insisting that he lay off. He wasn’t sure why, but he was starting to get an idea. An idea he wasn’t sure that he liked. He would have to keep a closer eye on that Bluejeans. 

Lucretia and Davenport, on the other hand, were still complete mysteries. On the surface, they seemed to be the purest archetypes of themselves. The bookworm and the hardcore captain. But they wouldn’t have been selected for the mission, much less have been able to handle said mission, if they were that two-dimensional. There had to be more than that to each of them, but he couldn’t place it yet. 

It was then that Taako realized that he again being the distant analytical person he had learned to be back at home. It had served him well on the homeworld, allowed him to keep moving and stay alive, whatever the cost. But now, he had to think about the people on this ship more as he thought about Lup back then. 

That was when it hit him. His old life wasn’t dead and gone. He and Lup were probably more prepared for this than anyone else. Jumping from place to place, with only a set number of people to rely on, with threats around every corner, doing what you had to just to stay alive? That sounded awfully familiar. Now he was doing it again, just this time, on a cosmic scale. Instead of just having Lup, he had six other people he could rely on. And instead of being chased by people who wanted to sell them into slavery or have them for dinner, it was an all-consuming force seemingly bent on the destruction of all things. Basically the same, just on a much bigger scale. 

This realization hit him like a bomb going off inside his head in the middle of one of Davenport’s sentences. He shot up in his chair so fast that his hat flew off and his chair toppled over. 

“Holy Shit! LuLu, we’re just doing it all over again!” 

\--

Lup had been lost in her head as well, but for a completely different reason. She, like Taako, had completely ad-libbed her part in the conversation they had up on deck. But instead of being a waterfall of depression and hopelessness, her words had roared out from her like a fire. 

Her support for her brother had exploded out from her like one of her spells gone haywire. It started as a single spark, but then kept growing, getting stronger and bigger, out of control until it was the one controlling her instead of the other way around. Had it been an actual blaze, that would have been terrifying. But the spark for this conflagration hadn’t been magical flame. It had been a feeling of love, of connection. 

That love had poured out from her in words of kindness and support in a way that she had never felt before. It was amazing. It was almost like watching someone else say those things. Saying exactly the right things, at exactly the right time. But there was one word that had given her pause. Because it was a word that she had never thought would apply to her. Something that she had given up on a long time ago. 

During her monologue, she had casually called them a “little family.” And that was exactly it. Family. That is what they were now, whether they liked it or not. And Lup had given up on having a real, true family by the time she could say her name. It wasn’t that she didn’t want one. It just didn’t seem possible. Like it was so far away that it wasn’t even worth dreaming about. 

Of course, she had Taako, and that was more than she could have ever asked for, but he was more of a co-conspirator than family. He was her brother, of course, but the way their life had gone had turned their relationship more into that of partners in crime. The bond that they had formed was no less powerful or meaningful, just… different. 

But now, she had a family. Sure, it was weird and wacky. They weren’t bound by blood, but by some magical and mysterious golden lights that wouldn’t let them die. They didn’t have shared ancestry, but they had all been chosen to be part of the greatest scientific mission their world had ever seen. And their world. As far as they knew, they were the only surviving people from their homeworld. And that had to mean something. 

A family. The mere thought of it was enough to bring a smile to her face. She sat at the table, a feeling of warmth flowing through her from head to toe until she was startled out of her serene daze by her brother yelling… 

***

The world they descended over would have been strange, had they not become accustomed to strange worlds by now. Even with that in mind, this was pretty strange. Nearly the entire thing was covered in massive mushrooms, encircling the globe like they were trying to consume it. It was a haunting sight from above, and they couldn’t believe that it would be any better with their feet on the ground. But they didn’t have a choice. The Starblaster wasn’t made to stay flying for a whole year, and besides, there were still some patches of the planet that seemed to remain free from the mushroom’s grasp. So that was where Davenport brought the ship down. 

The town where they set down was rather depressing once they had landed. Their ship was easily the brightest thing for miles around, it’s shining silver hull reflecting the small domed houses made of the enormous caps of the fungus. There were a few other buildings, but even those were made out of whatever woody material made up the stems of the massive shrooms. It seemed that no matter where you went on this world, there was no getting away from them. 

Barry and Lup had seen the light fall together and had immediately gotten to work trying to figure out exactly where it had landed. That was all well and good, but that meant that Taako had to go and do their duties of collecting samples with Merle. At first, he was appalled. But then he remembered his conversation with Lup and remembered that if they were going to face down all of reality together, he would need to get to know everyone on the crew. Even the strange little dwarf. 

\--

“You know Taako, for being so fancy and clean, you sure do know a thing or two about the earth and the things it gives. Where did you learn so much about plants?” 

Taako thought to himself about how he should answer that as he carved another chunk of the stalk off of a slightly different colored mushroom. Every sample could be helpful they said? Fine. He was gonna fill their lab with ‘samples.’ But Merle’s question was an interesting one if a little dumb. He knew a lot about plants so he could cook with them. But where he had learned about them was an interesting story. 

“Well, I originally learned about plants and all that delicious shit because I had to. While I was out on the road with Lup, we had to eat something, so we had to learn what wouldn’t kill us. But over time, we got better and found things that tasted good.”

He wasn’t quite ready to share all of their memories. That could come later. After all, they did have… forever? So maybe the story of their aunt could wait a little. And what he had said wasn’t untrue. They did have to learn a little first.

“That’s pretty cool. You think you could whip anything up with these things? I know mushrooms are used sometimes and can be delicious if done right. What do you say, Mr. Magic Man?” 

Taako looked down at the chunks of the weird brown mushroom stalk in his hand. Usually, he would be delighted to try and see what kind of experimental dish he could force the rest of the crew to eat. But these things game him a bad feeling. He took out his wand and cast one of the very few divination spells he had learned.  _ Detect Poison and Disease.  _

“Hot damn.”

Merle had been on his hands and knees in the dirt, gathering some of the normal-sized mushrooms that had sprung up in the shadows of the giants. He quickly hopped to his feet and rushed over to Taako. 

“Well, what is it Captain Conjure? I can’t see anything. Crouch down a little.”

Taako rolled his eyes, exasperated. 

“Well, first off, it’s not my fault you’re short. Secondly, you wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway, because I cast the spell. That’s how divination magic works. C’mon. I thought you would at least know that.” 

Merle stopped jumping to try and see what was in Taako’s hand. It was a fair point, even though it was made rudely. 

“But as for what it is… Well. To answer your initial question, no, we won’t be eating these things.” 

From Taako’s point of view, the chunk of stalk in his hand had lit up like a strobe light in a dance club. Usually, with  _ Detect Poison and Disease _ , an item would shine a different color and strength based on the type and strength of the poison. But these things were apparently so deadly that they broke the spell, overloaded with so much toxicity that they registered as  _ all poisons  _ at  _ maximum strength _ . It was starting to give Taako a migraine. He broke concentration on the spell, and the light faded. 

“These bad boys are wicked poisoned. Like, more than anything else ever. I probably shouldn’t even be holding it. Or…” 

That was when they realized something. They had originally thought that it was just slightly misty, but now that they had poisons on the mind, they realized that the has surrounded them wasn’t just vapor. They both took off towards the ship and Merle cast a  _ Shield of Faith  _ around their heads, in a desperate attempt to keep them from breathing in any more of the spores that filled the air. 

***

“Well, if you were only outside for a few minutes, and it was your first time being exposed, you should be fine. Just keep your masks on at all times from now forward. The spores are a nasty business, just like everything else that comes from the ‘Shrooms.” 

They had entered the small settlement the following morning. Almost immediately, they had been met by a welcome committee and had been presented with glass masks. Luckily, the people here spoke a language close enough to common that communication was possible, and quickly Taako and Merle’s suspicions were confirmed. The everpresent ‘mists’ were spores, and breathing them in was a fatal mistake. They were brought into one of the houses and sat down on the mats that were spread across the floor. Only Davenport had stayed back on the ship because the population didn’t seem at all threatening or dangerous. 

“Wait, like all things? What else comes out of them? From what we could tell, they pretty much just sit there.” 

Magnus and Lup had been the only ones talking. Merle and Taako didn’t feel great, despite the grizzled halfling’s reassurances. Barry and Lucretia were just taking in the surroundings, trying to catalog every memory for later use. 

“Well, for one big fella, they definitely don’t just sit there. They grow like damn weeds those things do. We have to go out every day and torch the new ones just to make sure they don’t take over our little town. And that that don’t even count the shroomlings.” 

Lup’s eyes widened on the word “torch.” Immediately, she held up one of her hands and two of the fingers lit up like birthday candles. She looked over at Magnus and smiled. The rest of the residents in the room sharply breathed in as one when the fire appeared. 

“Well my new friends, I’m not sure how y’all do the burning around here, but I’m pretty sure I can help. I can cook up a pretty naaasty flame if it is so desired.”

The halfling that they had been directing the questions at nodded at one of the others, who quickly got up and ran out of the room. 

“S’kal’ll fetch one of the devices we use to do the burning. While they go, do y’all got any other questions?” 

Finally, Barry spoke up. He had been looking around the room and thinking, and come to a strange conclusion. 

“Excuse me, Mr…?”

“You can call me Na’K.”

“Mr. Na’K, have you put any research into these mushrooms? If all you do it just burn them, maybe there might be a better solution?” 

There was silence in the domed room for a few moments. Then, Na’K laughed. It was a strange laugh. The kind of laugh that could have been big and hearty, that had the potential to bring joy and happiness to anyone who heard it. But instead, it was dry and raspy. Still loud, but sounded like it could break at any moment. 

“My red-robed friend, I assure you that if we could spare the manpower to do anything other than survive, it would  _ not  _ be spent doing science. Honestly, this meeting is taking up time that we do not have.” 

Just then, the halfling that left came back into the room carrying the only thing made of metal they had seen so far. It was a long metal tube connected to a large tank attached to the halfling’s back. A small flame burned at the end of the tube, and the halfling’s hand rested on a clear trigger. 

“Holy… Is that a  _ flamethrower!?”  _

Lup’s excitement was matched only by Magnus, who leaped to his feet and was running around the flamethrower wielding halfling, inspecting every part of it. Then, he stood up and confidently pronounced

“I need two of them.”

***

It had been a few months since they arrived in this world, and it seemed like everyone but Taako had something to do. Merle was going out every day to lead his congregation, which seemed okay. Taako had even tried to join him once or twice. 

Taako didn’t have a problem with religion, as long as it stayed out of his way. From the way, his life had gone, he had just decided that if the gods were going to help him, they would have done it already. When he went to listen to Merle’s speeches, he stood in the back and tried to tune out the underlying messages, and tried to just listen to the cadence of his talking. He had to give it to Merle, the guy knew how to get a crowd going. 

Pretty much everyone else had decided to go after the Light of Creation. But Taako just wasn’t feeling it, and when the day came for the Starblaster to take off and begin hunting it down, he decided to stay behind in Fungston. He would figure out what he would do later. 

\--

Later came a few nights after the rest of the crew, (other than Merle) had left. Taako always found it hard to sleep away from Lup. He could do it of course, and he had been having to do it a lot more in the past seven years than he liked, but that didn’t make it any easier. He had nightmares that plagued him almost nightly, and like all nightmares, they almost never made full sense, but they all had one thing in common. They were all missing Lup. So waking up and seeing her there, next to him, always made things better. 

Tonight, he was putting off sleep on purpose. He knew it would be fitful and rocked with dreams, so he wanted to delay it as long as possible. So after the dim sun had set behind the misty horizon, he had struck out from the house that had been allotted to the IPRE during their stay, and just started walking. 

Walks at night weren’t uncommon for him, and they weren’t as dangerous for him as they were for others. He could see in the dark quite well, and he could protect himself handily with his magic. But tonight, he didn’t even need his darkvision to see. 

The mushrooms all shone with a blue-green bioluminescent light that lit up the night as though they were there with that purpose. The world that seemed so depressing and bleak during the day came to life at night, illuminated by the very things that made it so soul-crushing in the light of day. It was beautiful but at the same time, terrifying. The mushrooms almost seemed to call out to Taako, beckoning him into the massive forest. 

He knew that going into that light would be certain death. He knew that giving in to that beautiful draw could end him. And that made him think of something. It reminded him of something else that was so dangerous, yet so beautiful. Another item that glowed with beauty, yet promised death. And that was when he figured out what he was going to spend the rest of his year doing. 

\--

He started by collecting as much bioluminescent material as he could. He knew that getting this right would take more than a couple of tries. After that, he just started grabbing shit. Anything he could find that might even be remotely useful. Particularly shiny rocks, mushroom sap, some weirdly sticky mud. Anything that might help in making something. Then he got to work. 

His first attempt was basically just a baseball-sized chunk of mushroom with a  _ Light  _ spell cast on it. Nothing special at all. Sure it was light, and it had been created, but it wouldn’t fool anyone into thinking it was The Light of Creation. He was going to need some serious magic to pull this off. 

And so Taako did something that he had never liked to do in his life. Taako asked for help. He went to one of Merle’s services and took his old spot in the back. The new building was far grander than the one they had been in before. It actually looked like the churches they had back home, with high ceilings and many pews. Taako could appreciate the effort that had gone into making this place. 

After it was done, Taako approached Merle. He tried to appear casual, but he was worried that anxiety might show through. He waited as Merle finished talking to one of the halflings that had attended before walking up and addressing his friend. 

“Well Merle, you certainly did a good job on this place. I like the… walls.” 

Merle smiled widely and looked around his church. He was proud of what he and his following had done together and hearing someone else compliment it was a good feeling. 

“Yeah Taako, me too. Took a while to figure out what to make them out of, but once we got the pseudowood from the mushrooms…”

Taako cut him off with a wave of his hand.

“Yeah, very good and cool. Anyway, I have an idea for how we might be able to beat the Hunger.” 

He had expected that to get more of a reaction. He had planned for a big “wow Taako, really? Tell me all about it so we can do it right now!” Instead, Merle just stared at him and then shrugged.

“That sounds awesome. But if you have a great idea, you should be doing it right? If you don’t need me, then what’s the point of you telling me?” 

Taako sighed. This was the part that he wasn’t so ready for. 

“Well, that’s exactly the point. I actually do need you for this. So if you have any time off from… this?”

A large smile spread across Merle’s face. His eyes lit up and sparkled with the light that only he could bring to the world.

“Taako, I would love to! I have sermons every day at noon for an hour, but any other time, I am totally down to help you out! Whatever you need my man!” 

\--

Taako’s original idea had been to combine his expertise in arcane magic with Merle’s knowledge of divine magic. From what he could get from all of Barry’s scientific jargon about the Light, it was a school of magic all it’s own and didn’t make any sense. Maybe by combining them, they could trick the Hunger somehow. Make a convincing duplicate of the light. He would talk to the rest of the crew to see how to use it if it worked.

Once they had a schedule, they started planning. They would start by just making a bunch of differently sized spheres from different material before actually getting down to any actual magic. They made a couple from the mushrooms, a few from the shiny rocks, and some from various conjured materials between both of them. 

A few weeks in, they had a small arsenal of semi-glowing spheres. They were arranged on desks and the floor of the hut that the IPRE was staying in. Once they had about three dozen, they started working on the magic. It didn’t go well. 

Two months later, Taako and Merle stood outside of their dome with smoke pouring out of the entrance. Merle was covered in soot and glitter but had a massive smile plastered to his face. Taako looked pristine as ever, other than a small ember burning at the top of his hat. They were breathing heavily, and their masks were covered in handprints from where they just frantically wiped so that they could see enough to get out.

“That went… about as shitty… as it possibly could have. And now we have to wait… out here in the cold… until we can actually go back into the… damn… dome.”

Taako was not used to being physically exhausted. Mentally, for sure. But he spent most of his time trying his best to stay out of situations that would require him getting to the point where catching his breath would be a difficulty. He was quite upset that he had broken his streak now. 

“What are you talking about my magical friend? That was incredible! We were so close! We just pumped a little too much power into that quartz and it blew up pretty spectacularly, you got to admit. You did see that right? Before it got all smokey, I mean.” 

Taako looked over at Merle with a look of complete bafflement on his face. Merle’s positivity was completely beyond him and was almost lost on him as well. Almost. And so he decided to figure it out. 

“Merle, my dude, I’m gonna be straight with you. I have no idea how you can see any upside to this abysmal failure, and I don’t get it at all.”

“Well, my friend, when bad things happen, we have two options. You can either wallow in sadness and depression and let it overcome you, or you can choose joy. You can let life get you down, or you can let it bring you up. And I try to choose joy and light whenever I can. I think you could do that a little more as well.” 

There would be a few more months of testing, of mixing magic, of successes and failures. There would be explosions, there would be fireworks. There would be highs and lows, but they kept trying. And over time, they got closer. The lights got stronger. The explosions got weaker and came later. The experimenting started to work. The wizard and the cleric actually for once started to understand the appeal of science. 

And in the in-between nights, during the time when their wands and foci lay dormant, Taako lay awake in his cot. He mulled over Merle’s words in his mind. He pondered his positivity, his hope, and his joy.  And he started to think that, maybe, just maybe, he would try and apply that to his own life. Just a little bit. 

***

When Taako saw the Starblaster’s shining hull descending out of the sky, he sprinted out into the field where they had landed the first time with Merle. He had begun to get worried because there was only a month before the Hunger was supposed to come. He had feared that something terrible had happened, that the ship had encountered something that it couldn’t handle, and he had been too busy playing with his little light show to help. 

Seeing them coming down to land lifted that weight from his chest. He hoped that they had the light, he hoped that everyone was okay, and he hoped against hope that they had learned something that could help him make his project perfect. That maybe this could be it. He doubted it, but hanging out with Merle had taught him more about hope than he had accounted for. 

When he ran up the gangplank onto the ship, he expected to greet the crew. He had been thinking about how he would do this. He wanted to greet them like family, not like coworkers because that was what they were now. Family is what he had been training himself to think of the IPRE as. And it had worked better than he had planned. As he boarded the ship alongside Merle, he felt like he was coming home. 

He and Merle walked into the dining, Taako making his usual dramatic, aloof entrance. Just because he was trying to think of the crew as his family didn’t mean he had to let them know about it. Merle just jumped in prepared to just get into catching up. 

Seeing Magnus’ empty chair hit him like a physical punch. Each and every person had their own spot that had they sat in each time for the past seven years. And all of them were full but one. Each spot had taken on the personality of the person who had claimed it in a way. Lup’s spot was covered in small burn marks from when she got bored during meetings, as well as little doodles from when she happened to have a pen on hand. 

Merle and Taako’s seats both showed traces of their magic. Merle’s wooden seat seemed to have come alive again, sprouting leaves and twigs, and even the occasional flower. The table in front of his place was covered in food stains and other unidentifiable marks. Taako’s chair was encrusted with gems and shiny stones that he had transmuted or just conjured, and his place at the table was always ready to go. Not perfectly set like Lucretia’s, not nearly so, but enough that he could chow down at any moment. 

Barry, Davenport, and Lucretia hadn’t put any special care into their seats at the table, but they had still left their unmistakable marks. Barry’s entire area was marked with equations and notes that he had come up with during meals and couldn’t afford to forget and hadn’t gotten around to erasing yet. Lup had draped a purple cape with the word “Nerdlord” over the back of his chair, and either he hadn’t noticed or didn’t care enough to remove it. Lucretia’s space was almost completely clean. Almost. It was always perfectly set and prepared, nothing a micrometer out of place. There were, however, always eraser shavings scattered across the entire area like pollen through a flower forest. Davenport kept his seat at the head of the table perfectly clear and clean at all times. He wanted to set a good example as the captain. 

But Magnus. Magnus’ place might have had the most personality of all, and that was why seeing it empty hit both Taako and Merle hit so hard. He had complained so much about the size of the chairs that he had dragged in a new one that he got from the world where they were worshiped as gods. It was large and wooden, and he called it his throne. He liked to boast that he had the best chair, but the rest of them liked reminding him that the IPRE supplied chairs were specifically made to be the best. 

His place at the table, like Merle’s, was blanketed in food stains, but when you looked closely, like when someone is gone and every part about them jumps out at you, there was a distinct difference. Whereas Merle’s spills were big and splotchy, clearly from carelessness or clumsiness, the marks around Magnus’s spot were more splashes, arcing away from his seat in sweeping lines. They were clearly made from food flying during grand gestures or spitting while getting overexcited during telling a particularly dramatic story. And then, the wood of the table was pockmarked with gouges and punctures. Magnus had a habit of stabbing whatever sharp object he was holding into the table when he made a point. The damage that left behind flustered Davenport to no end, but it added so much personality to the entire room. 

But seeing that place empty. Seeing The Throne sitting empty, seeing his place at the table not even set… After months of waiting, of training himself to think about the crew as a family only to see one of them gone… it was almost too much for him. And Magnus. Why did it have to be Magnus? They had grown close during that last year, and he had wanted to try and make that connection stronger. But now…

“Hey? Wheres Maggie? Everyone is here, but the big guy’s spot is empty. Is he hiding under the table again? ‘Cmon out, you ain’t gonna scare me this time....”

Merle was being his usual oblivious self. He was looking around the room, trying to figure out where Magnus was. He was completely unable to read the room, unable to read the quiet sadness that permeated the air throughout the dining room. Lucretia decided she would be the one to break the news. 

“Merle, Magnus didn’t… Magnus took his mask off. He breathed in those spores and… well. He didn’t make it. But remember! He’ll be back next year! Only one month. Then we’ll all be together again.” 

Merle’s constant movement ceased. What was a moment ago unable to stay still now seemed to be made of stone. Then, a moment later, it seemed like he deflated. Like all the air was let out of him and he bent over the table, and he held his head in his hands. 

“It was the damn hard candy, wasn’t it. Kid couldn’t resist it.”

Nobody responded. Taako could tell by the stillness that filled the room that he had gotten it right on. Then Lup snickered. 

“Yeah. Yeah, it was.”

Merle smiled. Barry breathed out of his nose slightly harder than usual. Lucretia raised her journal up over her face to hide her smile but wasn’t fast enough. Taako was finding it hard to stay upset. Death by hard candy? Even Davenport’s mustache twitched slightly. 

“What an idiot! Love the guy to death but… whoops.” 

Then they couldn’t hide it anymore. Merle was always one to laugh at his own jokes, and once the twins gave him permission by cracking up themselves, he joined in. Next was Barry. His surprisingly gentle laugh was enough to give permission to Lucretia, who’s just as surprisingly hearty guffaw, in turn, set off Davenport. Soon, the dining hall, which moments ago felt like a funeral, was filled with the sounds of joy. 

Death is a frightening thing. But it is also inevitable, and living in fear of it can only serve to drive one mad. For those of us to whom death is inescapable, we must accept it with grace. When the reaper comes knocking, our only option is to greet him kindly, lest we let despair seize what little time we do have. 

When time is endless and death is temporary, one might think that the only thing that can follow in numbness. This is not so. Death is still a frightening thing, inevitable or not. And when it’s cold hands arrive for you and your loved ones so often, simply accepting it isn’t enough. You can’t just greet the reaper with civility. You have to welcome him in with open arms and make him a constant companion. That doesn’t mean it won’t still hurt. That doesn’t take the pain away. But it makes it bearable. And when time is endless and death is temporary, bearable is all you can hope for. 

So the crew of the IPRE Starblaster held a funeral for Magnus Burnsides. But it was unlike any other funeral any of them had attended. There was telling of stories, there were reenactments of battles that may or may not have happened, and most importantly there was laughter. A feeling of joy permeated the ship that night. Because while they missed their friend and brother dearly, he would return. And they would all be stronger for it. 

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I've been out of it! Life gets in the way, and I haven't been able to listen to TAZ. I really wanted to get this right, and without actually having the specifics of Fungston, I didn't want to do it. But then I decided to just get it anyway, so please forgive any inconsistencies with the official canon.


End file.
